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TESTIMONIALS 

4 TO THE MERITS OF- 

THOMAS PAINE, 

AUTHOR OF “COMMON SENSE,” t( THE CRISIS,” “THE 
RIGHTS OF MAN,” “ENGLISH SYSTEM OF FI¬ 
NANCE,” “ AGE OF REASON,” ETC., ETC. 

COMPILED BY 

JOSEPH N. MOREAU. 


u The world is my country. 

To do good my religion.”— Paine’s Motto. 


* 

4 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY J. P. MENDUM, 
Office of the Boston Investigator. 

1874. 









Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year One Thou¬ 
sand Eight Hundred and Sixty-one, by F. L. Taylor, in the 
Clerk’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 





/ 


t f 


TO THE 

/ 

KEY. M. D. CONWAY, 

OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, 

the first clergyman 


WHO HAS HAD THE MORAL COURAGE TO CHAMPION IN THE 
PULPIT THE CAUSE OF ONE WHOSE FAIR NAME, THOUGH 
NOW DEFAMED, SHALL ONE DAY DESERVEDLY 
SHINE FORTH AS THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN 
THE AMERICAN GALAXY. 


THIS LITTLE WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 

BY HIB FRIEND, 

THE PUBLISHER. 


N 




TO THE HEADER. 


The following little work will, perhaps, give you 
a more high conception of the important and meri¬ 
torious services of the “ Archimedes of the Eigh¬ 
teenth Century ” to mankind, than could be con¬ 
ceived from the perusal of any ‘ Life ” of him ever 
issued from the Press; for, instead of its being the 
opinion of one individual, and that opinion per¬ 
haps biassed, it is a collection of the sentiments of 
some seventy Historians, Statesmen, Poets, and Di¬ 
vines, many of whom were opposed to his political, 
and almost all to his theological views. If it, in 
the slightest degree, adds to your appreciation of 
Paine, the object of the compiler will be accom¬ 
plished. ' 

JOSEPH N. MOREAU. 

Philadelphia, Pa., 1861. 


TESTIMONIALS 


TO THB 

MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 

* _ 


GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

First President of this great Republic, in a letter 
to Thomas Paine, inviting that author and patriot 
to partake with him, at Rocky-Hill, says :— 

“ Your presence may remind Congress of your 
past services to this country, and if it is in my 
power to impress them, command my best exertions 
with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully, 
by one who entertains a lively sense of the impor¬ 
tance of your works.” 

In his letter to Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, 
this honored hero writes :— 

“ That his Common Sense and many of his Cri¬ 
sis were well timed and had a happy effect on the 
public mind, none I believe who will turn to the 
epocha at which they were published, will deny.— 
That his services have hitherto passed off unno¬ 
ticed, is obvious to all.” 

Gen. Washington to Gen. Joseph Reed, March, 
1776 :—“ By private letters which I have lately re¬ 
ceived from Virginia, I find that i Common Sense ’ 
is working a powerful change there in the minds of 
many men.” 


1* 



6 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


u A few more such flaming arguments as were 
exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk, added to the 
sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning con¬ 
tained in the pamphlet ‘ Common Sense ,’ will not 
leave numbers at'a loss to decide on the propriety 
of a separation.” — [Gen Washington to, Joseph 
Reed, dated Cambridge, Jan. 31,.1776. 

JOHN ADAMS, 

The Second President of the United States, who 
spared no occasion to underrate Thomas Paine’s ser¬ 
vices, and to assault his opinions and character, the 
transparent motive being a jealousy to be consider¬ 
ed him’self the greatest mover of the ball of Inde¬ 
pendence, thus writes to his wife on the 19 th of 
March, 1776 

“ You ask me what is thought of Common Sense. 
Sensible men think there are some whims, some 
sophisms, some artful addresses to superstitious no¬ 
tions, some keen attempts upon the passions, in this 
pamphlet. But all agree there is a great deal of 
good sense, delivered in clear, simple, concise, and 
nervous style. His sentiments of the abilities of 
America, and of the diflieulty of a reconciliation 
with Great Britain, are generally approved.” 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

The Third President of the United States, and 
the writer of the glorious “ Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence,” thus speaks of the “ Author Hero ” who 
first suggested it, in a letter to Francis Eppes :— 

11 You ask my opinion of Lord Bolingbroke and 


MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 


7 


Thomas Paine. They were alike in making bitter 
,enemies of the priests and pharisees of their day. 
Both were honest men ; both advocates for human 
liberty. .... These two persons 
differed remarkably in the style of their writing, 
each leaving a model of what is most perfect in 
both extremes of the simple and the sublime. No 
writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of 
style, in perspicuity of expression, happiness of 
elucidation, and in simple and unassuming language. 
In this he may be compared with Dr. Franklin.” 

In 1801, in a letter to Paine tendering him a pas¬ 
sage to the United States from France, in a na¬ 
tional vessel, Jefferson writes:— 

“ I am in hopes you will find us returned gener¬ 
ally to sentiments worthy of former'times. In these 
it will be your glory to have steadily labored, and 
with as much effect as any man living. That you 
may long live to continue your useful labors and to 
reap the reward of the thankfulness of nations, is 
-my sincere prayer.” 

JAMES MADISON,* 

The Fourth President of the United States, and 
expounder of the Constitution. In 1784, a bill was 
brought before the Virginia Legislature, proposing 
to give Paine a tract of land on the eastern shore of 
Chesapeake Bay. It was defeated by a single vote. 
Monroe stated that it would have been carried in 
his favor, had he not written “ Public Good.” It 
was this that called forth the following from Madi¬ 
son to Washington :— 

“ Whether a greater disposition to reward patri- 


8 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


otic and distinguished exertions of genius will be 
found on any succeeding occasion, is not for me to 
predetermine. Should it finally appear that the 
merits of the man whose writings have so much 
contributed to infuse and foster the spirit of in¬ 
dependence in the people of America are unable 
to inspire them with a just beneficence, the world, 
it is to be feared, will give us as little credit for our 
policy as for our gratitude in this particular.” 

JAMES MUNROE, 

The Fifth President of the United States. The 
following extract is from a letter written by this 
gentleman to Paine, previous to the release from 
the Luxembourg of “ the Apostle of Liberty ” 

“ It is not necessary for me to tell you how much 
all your countrymen—I speak of the great mass 
of the people — are interested in your welfare. 
They have not forgotten the history of their own 
Revolution, and the difficult scenes through which 
they had passed; nor do they review its several 
stages without reviving in their bosoms a due sen¬ 
sibility of the merits of those who served them in 
that great and arduous conflict. The crime oj in¬ 
gratitude has not get stained , and I hope never 
will stain , our national character . You are con¬ 
sidered by them as not only having rendered im¬ 
portant services in our own Revolution, but as be¬ 
ing, on a more extensive scale, the friend of human 
rights, and a distinguished and able advocate in 
favor of public liberty. To the welfare of Thomas 
Paine the Americans are not, nor can they be, 
indifferent.” 


MERITS 0E THOMAS PAINE. 


9 


GEN. ANDREW JACKSON, 

The “ Hero of New Orleans, and the Seventh 
President of the United States, said to the vener¬ 
able philanthropist, Judge Herttell, of New York, 
upon the latter proposing the erection of a suitable 
monument to Thomas Paine:— 

u Thomas Paine needs no monument made by 
hands ; he has erected himself a monument in the 
hearts of all lovers of liberty. { The Rights of 
Man ’ will be more enduring than all the piles of 
marble and granite man can erect.’’ 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 

Who first introduced Thomas Paine to the new 
world, says, in a letter he gave the English excise¬ 
man recommending him to his son-in-law, Richard 
Bache (1774) 

“ The bearer, Mr. Thomas Paine, is very well 
recommended to me as an ingenious, worthy young 
man. He goes to Pennsylvania with a view of set¬ 
tling there. I request you to give him your best 
advice and countenance.” 

About thirteen years after, Dr. Franklin gave 
him letters of introduction to several of the most 
prominent French “ men of letters.” The following 
is an extract from one to the Due de la Rochefou¬ 
cauld :— 

“ The bearer of this is Mr. Paine, the author of 
a famous piece entitled Common Sense , published 
here with great effect on the minds of the people 
at the beginning of the Revolution. He is an in¬ 
genious, honest man ; and as such I beg leave to 
recommend him to your civilities.” 


10 


MERITS OP THOMAS PAINE. 


DR. BENJAMIN RUSH, 

A member from Philadelphia of the Continental 
Congress and Signer of the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence, gives the following account of the first ap¬ 
pearance of “ Common Sense ” :— 

“ At that time there was a certain Robert Bell, 
an intelligent Scotch printer and bookseller of Phil¬ 
adelphia, whom I knew to be as high-toned as Mr. 
Paine upon the subject of Independence. I men¬ 
tioned the subject of the pamphlet to him, and he at 
once consented to run the risk of publishing it. 
The author and the printer were immediately 
brought together, and ‘ Common Sense * bursted 
from the press of the latter, in a few days, with 
an effect which has rarely been produced by types 
and paper, in any age or country.” 

u Mr. Paine’s manner of life was desultory. He 
often visited in'the families of Dr. Eranklin, Mr. 
Rittenhouse, and of Mr. George Clymer, where he 
made himself acceptable by a turn he discovered 
for philosophical as well as political subjects ” 

RICHARD HENRY LEE, 

A distinguished patriot of the Revolution, and 
who, as member of Congress from Virginia, in 1776, 
first proposed to that body the Declaration of In¬ 
dependence, in returning thanks to General Wash¬ 
ington for a copy of the Rights of Man , remarked : 

11 It is a performance of which any man might 
be proud; and I most sincerely regret that our 
country could not have offered sufficient induce¬ 
ments to have retained, as a permanent citizen, a 
man so thoroughly republican in sentiment, and 
fearless in the expression of his opinion.” 




TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


11 


In a letter of Lee to Washington, dated Chantilly, 
22d July, 1784, he says 

" The very great respect I shall ever pay to your 
recommendations, would have been very sufficient 
to have procured my exertions in favor of Mr. 
Paine, independent of his great public merits in 
our Kevolution. I have a perfect knowledge of the 
extraordinary effects produced by that gentleman’s 
writings; effects of such an important nature as 
would render it very unworthy of these States to let 
him suffer anywhere; but it would be culpable in¬ 
deed to permit it under their own eye, and within 
their own limits. I had not the good fortune to 
be present when Mr. Paine’s business was consid¬ 
ered in the House of Delegates (of Virginia) or, 
most certainly, I should have exerted myself in his 
behalf. I have been told that a proposition in his 
favor has miscarried, from its being observed that 
he had shown enmity to the State by having writ¬ 
ten a pamphlet (The Public Good) injurious to our 
claim of Western territory. It has ever appeared 
to me that this pamphlet was the consequence of 
Mr. Paine’s being himself imposed upon; and that 
it was rather the fault of the place than of the man. 
This, however, was but a trifle, when compared 
with the great and essential services that his other 
writings have done for the United States/’ 

Extract from a letter from a gentleman in Charles¬ 
ton, S. C., dated February 14, 1776 :—“ Who is the 
author of Common Sense ? I can hardly refrain from 
adoring him. He deserves a statue of gold.” — 
[Pennsylvania Journal, March 27, 1776. 






12 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

The following is related by Clio Rickman, the 
Poet, who was with Paine in France :— 

“ When Bonaparte returned (to Paris) from Italy, 
he called on Mr. Paine and invited him to dinner. 
In the course of his rapturous address to him, he 
declared that a statue of gold ought to be erected to 
him in every city of the universe, assuring him that 
he always slept with the ‘ Rights of Man ’ under 
his pillow, and conjured him to honor him with his 
correspondence and advice.” 

Rickman then remarks on the above :— 

“ This anecdote is only related as a. fact. Of the 
sincerity of the compliment those must judge who 
knew Bonaparte’s principles best.” 

It might be here added, that when Napoleon med¬ 
itated his invasion of England, by means of gun¬ 
boats, he secured the services of Paine to organize 
a government if it proved successful. 

MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES LEE, 

Fourteen days after the publication of “ Common 
Sense,” thus wrote to Gen. Washington :— 

“ Have you seen the pamphlet ‘ Common Sense ? * 
I never saw such a masterly, irresistible perform¬ 
ance. It will, if I mistake not, in concurrence with 
the transcendent folly and wickedness of the min¬ 
istry, give the coup de grace to Great Britain. In 
short, I own myself convinced by the arguments of 
the necessity of separation.” 

General Lee, speaking of the wonderful effects 

of Paine’s writings, said, that “ He burst forth on 

* 


MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 


13 


the world like Jove in thunder!” John Adams 
says that Lee used to speak of Paine as “ the man 
with genius in his eyes.” 

THOMAS CAMPBELL, 

The Poet, whose lyrics and didactic writings have 
secured him a niche in the Temple of Fame, says: 

“ Those who remember the impression that was 
made by Burke’s writings on the then living gene¬ 
ration, will recollect that in the better educated 
classes of society there was a general proneness to 
go with Burke, and it is my sincere opinion that 
that proneness would have become universal, if 
such a man as Mackintosh had not presented himself 
like a breakwater to the general springtide of 
Burkeism. I may be reminded there was such a 
man as Thomas Paine, and that he strongly an¬ 
swered at the bar of public opinion all the argu¬ 
ments of Burke. I do not deny this fact ; and I 
should be sorry if I could be blind, even with tears 
in my eyes for Mackintosh, to the services that 
have been rendered to the cause of truth by the 
shrewdness and courage of Thomas Paine. But 
without disparagement to Paine, in a great and 
essential view, it must be admitted that, though 
radically sound in sense, he was deficient in strate- 
getics of philosophy ; whilst Mackintosh met Burke 
perfectly his equal in the tactics of moral science 
and in beauty of style and illustration. Hence 
Mackintosh went as the apostle of Liberalism 
among a class, perhaps too influential in society, to 
whom the manners of Paine were repulsive.” 

2 



14 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


LORD ERSKINE, 

“ The greatest forensic advocate since the days 
of Cicero,” speaking of the American Revolution, 
said :— 

“ In that great and calamitous conflict, Edmund 
Burke and Thomas Paine fought in the same field 
together, but with very different success. Mr. 
Burke spoke to a Parliament in England, such as 
Sir George Saville describes it, having no ears but 
for sounds that flattered its corruptions. Mr. 
Paine, on the other hand, spoke to the people, rea¬ 
soned with them, told them they were bound by 
no subjection to any sovereignty, further than 
their own benefit connected them ; and by these 
powerful arguments prepared the minds of the 
American people for that glorious, just, and happy 
Revolution.” 

SIR ERANCIS BURDETT 

Thus alluded to Thomas Paine, in a speech in 
London, in 1797, as Chairman of a meeting of the 
“Friends of Parliamentary Reform”:— 

“Union! It is union among the people that 
ministers dread. They are aware that when once 
the people unite in demanding their rights, then 
there must be an end to illegitimate power; I 
mean all power not derived from the people. Min¬ 
isters know that a united people are not to be re¬ 
sisted ; and it is this that we must understand by 
what is written in the works of an honest man 
too long calumniated , I mean Thomas Paine.” 


MERITS OP THOMAS PAINE. 15 

JUDGE HERTTELL, 

Of New York, says :—“ No man in modern ages 
has done more to benefit mankind, or distinguished 
himself more for the immense moral good he has 
effected for his species than Thomas Paine ; who 
in truth merits eternal life, and, doubtless will be 
immortalized in the memory and gratitude of fu¬ 
ture generations of happy beings, who will continue 
to hymn his praises and make his merits known 
to the remotest posterity.” 

MADAME DE STAEL, 

In her “ Considerations on the French Revolu¬ 
tion,” says:— 

“ Thomas Paine was the most violent of the 
American Democrats ; and yet, there was neither 
calculation nor hypocrisy in his political exaggera¬ 
tions. When the sentence of Louis XYI. came 
under discussion, he alone advised what would have 
done honor to France if it had been adopted, the 
offer to the King of an asylum in America. ‘The 
Americans are grateful to him,” said Paine, ‘for 
having promoted their Independence.’ ” jj 

MADAME ROLAND, 

In her “Appeal,” says: (See vol. i. part 2, page 
45, ed. 1798.) 

“ Among the persons I was in the habit of re¬ 
ceiving, and of whom I have already described the 
most remarkable, Paine deserves to be mentioned. 
Declared a French citizen, as one of those celebrated 
foreigners whom the nation ought with eagerness 



6 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


to adopt, he was known by writings which had 
been useful in the American Eevolution, and might 
have contributed to produce one in England. I 
shall not take upon me to decide decisively on his 
character, because he understood French without 
speaking it, and I was nearly in the same situation 
with respect to English; I was, therefore, less able 
to converse with him myself than to listen to his 
discourses with those whose political talents were 
greater than my own. The boldness of his concep¬ 
tions, the originality of his style, the striking truths 
which he boldly throws out in the midst of those 
whom they offend, must necessarily have produced 
great effects; but I should think him better qual¬ 
ified to scatter, if I may be allowed the expression, 
the flames of conflagration, than to discuss primary 
principles or prepare the formation of Government.” 

KEY. GEOEGE CEOLY, 

In his “Life of George IV.,” thus speaks of 
Thomas Paine:— 

“ An impartial estimate of this remarkable per¬ 
son has been rarely formed, and still more rarely 
expressed. He was, assuredly, one of the original 
men of the age in which he lived. It has been 
said that he owed success to vulgarity. No one 
competent to judge, could read a page of his 1 Eights 
of Man,’ without seeing that this is a clumsy mis¬ 
representation. There is a peculiar originality in 
his style of thought and expression, his diction is 
not vulgar or illiterate, but nervous, simple, and 
scientific. Others have said of him, with more truth, 
that he owed his popularity to the hardihood with 




MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 17 

which he proclaimed and vindicated his errors_ 

Paine, like the 3 T oung Spartan warrior, went into 
the field stripped bare to the last thread of pru¬ 
dent conventional disguise; and thus not only fixed 
the gaze of men upon his intrepid singularity, but 
exhibited the vigor of his faculties in full play.— 
His ambition seems to have been that of an eccen¬ 
tric, well-intentioned desperado.” 

JOEL BARLOW, 

The poet, patriot, and statesman, and an inti¬ 
mate friend of Paine, says:— 

“ He was one of the most benevolent and disin¬ 
terested of mankind, endowed with the clearest per¬ 
ception, an uncommon share of original genius, and 

the greatest depth of thought. 

“ He ought to be ranked among the brightest and 
undeviating luminaries of the age in which he lived. 

“ As a visiting acquaintance and a literary friend, 
he was one of the most instructive men I ever have 
known. He had a surprising memory and a bril¬ 
liant fancy. His mind was a storehouse of facts 
and useful observations. He was full of lively 
anecdote, and ingenious, original, pertinent remark 

upon almost every subject. 

“ He was always charitable to the poor beyond 
his means, a sure protector and a friend to all 
Americans in distress that he found in foreign 
countries: and he had frequent occasion to exert 
his influence in protecting them during the Revo¬ 
lution in France. 

“His writings will answer for his patriotism.” 

2* 






18 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


WILLIAM OOBBBTT, 

Author of a “ History of the Reformation,” and 
several other works, and at one time a violent op¬ 
ponent of Thos. Paine, says, in his “ Paper against 
Gold ”:— 

“In principles of finance, Mr. Paine was deeply 
skilled ; and to his very great and rare talents 
as a writer, he added an uncommon degree of ex¬ 
perience in the concerns of paper money. 

Events have proved the truths of his principles on 
this subject, and to point out the fact is no more 
than an act of justice due to his talents, and an 
act more particularly due at my hands, I having 
been one of his most violent assailants.” 

In his “Political Register,” he confessed that: 

“ Old age having laid his hand upon this truly 
great man, this truly philosophical politician, at 
his expiring flambeau I lighted my taper.” 

He also says:— 

“ I saw Paine first pointing the way, and then 
leading a nation through perils and difficulties of 
all sorts to Independence, and to lasting liberty, 
prosperity, and greatness.” 

CHARLES PHILLIPS, 

The eloquent Irish barrister, wrote the following 
beautiful tribute to Paine. It may be found in his 
“ Loves of Celestine and St. Hubert ” :— 

“ Among these, there was one whom I could 
not help viewing with peculiar admiration, because, 
by the sole power of surprising genius, he had sur¬ 
mounted the disadvantages of birth and the diffi- 


MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 19 

culties of fortune. It was the celebrated Thomas 
Paine, a man who, no matter what may be the dif¬ 
ference of opinion as to his principles, must ever 
remain a proud example of mind, unpatronized and 
unsupported, eclipsing the factitious beams of rank, 
and wealth, and pedigree ! I never saw him in his 
captivity, or heard the revilings by which he has 
since been assailed, without cursing in my heart 
that ungenerous feeling which, cold to the necessi¬ 
ties of genius, is clamorous in the publication of 

its defects. ‘ Ye great ones of his nation ! 

ye pretended moralists, so forward now to cast your 
interested indignation upon the memory of Paine, 
where were you in the day of his adversity ?— 
Which of you, to assist his infant merit, would 
diminish even the surplus of your debaucheries ?— 
Where the mitred charity—the practical religion ? 
Consistent declaimers, rail on. What, though his 
genius was the gift of heaven, his heart the .altar 
of friendship ! What, though wit and eloquence, 
and anecdote flowed freely from his tongue, while 
conviction made her voice his messenger ! What, 
though thrones trembled, and prejudice fled, and 
freedom came at his commaid ! He dared to ques¬ 
tion the creed which you, believing, contradicted, 
and to despise the rank which you, boasting of, de¬ 
based.’ ” 


HENKY C. WEIGHT 

Says:—“ Thomas Paine had a clear idea of God. 
This Being embodied his highest conception of truth, 
love, wisdom, mercy, liberty, and power.” 





20 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


ABBE SIEYES, 

The distinguished French statesman, in 1791, 
upon the appearance of Paine’s “Eights of Man” 
in France, thus wrote:— 

“ Mr. Thomas Paine is one of those men who most 
contributed to the establishment of a Republic in 
America. In England, his ardent love of humani¬ 
ty, and his hatred of every form of tyranny, prompt¬ 
ed him to defend the French Revolution against the 
rhapsodical declamation of Mr. Burke. His ‘ Rights 
of Man,’ translated into our language, is univer¬ 
sally known, and where is the patriotic Frenchman 
who has not already, from the depths of his soul, 
thanked him for having fortified our cause with all 
the power of his reason and his reputation ? It is 
with great pleasure that I embrace this occasion 
*to offer him a tribute of my thankfulness and pro¬ 
found esteem, for the truly philanthropic use he 
makes of his distinguished talents.” 

SAMUEL ADAMS, 

One of the most bold and sturdy patriots of the 
Revolution, and a signed of the Declaration of In¬ 
dependence, in 1802, in a letter to Paine, lamenting 
the publication of the “ Age of Reason,” says:— 

“ I have frequently, with pleasure, reflected on 
your services to my native and your adopted coun¬ 
try. Your ‘ Common Sense,’ and your 1 Crisis ’ un¬ 
questionably awakened the public mind, and led 
the people loudly to call for a Declaration of our 
National Independence.” 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


21 


WILLIAM HOWITT, 

In “ Cassell’s Illustrated History of England/’ 
says :— 

u There was no man in the Colonies, neverthe¬ 
less, who contributed so much to bring the open 
Declaration of Independence to a crisis, as Thomas 
Paine, the celebrated author of ‘ The Eights of 
Man/ and the ‘ Age of Beason.’ ”... 

“ This Pamphlet (Common Sense) was the spark 
which was all that was needed to fire the train of 
Independence. It at once seized on the imagination 
of the public ; cast all other writers into the shade, 
and flew in thousands and tens of thousands all 
over the Colonies. . . . During the winter and 
spring, this lucid and admirably reasoned pamphlet 
was read and discussed everywhere, and by all 
classes, bringing the conviction that immediate in¬ 
dependence was necessary. The common fire blazed 
up in the Congress, and the thing was done. 

. . He (Paine) became the great oracle on sub¬ 
jects of governments and constitutions, and con¬ 
trived, both by personal exertions and through the 
press, to urge on the utter separation of the Colo¬ 
nies from the mother country.” 

, WILLIAM MASSEY 

In his History of England, says: “ Thomas Paine’s 
pamphlet, ‘ Common Sense ’ in which the new doc¬ 
trines of liberty and equality were broadly taught, 
was published in America, in January, 1776, and 
had»an immense circulation.” 



22 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


JOHN FROST, LL. D., 

In his History of the United States, says : 

“ During the winter of 1775-6, many of the most 
able writers in America were employed in demon¬ 
strating the necessity and propriety of a total sepa¬ 
ration from the mother country, and the establish¬ 
ment of constitutional governments in the Colonies. 
One of the most conspicuous of these writers was 
Thomas Paine, who published a pamphlet under the 
signature of ‘ Common Sense/ which produced great 
effect. It demonstrated the necessity, advantages, 
and practicability of independence, and heaped 
reproach and disgrace on monarchical governments, 
and ridicule on hereditary succession.— History U, 
S. Vol. I. pp. 192-93. 

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYL¬ 
VANIA, 

In 1785, passed the following: — 

(t Whereas, During the late Revolution, and par¬ 
ticularly in the most trying and perilous times 
thereof, many very eminent services' were rendered 
to the people of the United States by Thomas Paine, 
Esq., accompanied with sundry distinguished in¬ 
stances of fidelity, patriotism, and disinterested - 
ness ; 

And , whereas , The said Thomas Paine did, dur¬ 
ing the whole progress of the Revolution, volunta¬ 
rily devote himself to the service of the public, 
without accepting recompense therefor, and, more¬ 
over did decline taking or receiving the profits 
which authors are entitled to on the sale of their 


MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 


23 


literary works, but relinquished them for the better 
accommodation of the country, and for the honor 
of the public cause; 

And , whereas , Besides the knowledge which this 
House has of the services of the said Thomas Paine, 
the same having been recommended to us by his 
Excellency, the President, and the Supreme Execu¬ 
tive Council of the State, of the 16th of December 
last past, and by the friendly offices of the late 
patriotic Commander-in-chief, General Washington ; 

“Be it enacted , And it is hereby enacted, by the 
[Representatives of the freemen of the Common¬ 
wealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, 
and by the authority of the same, that, as a tem¬ 
porary recompense to the said Thomas Paine, and 
until suitable provision shall be further made; ei¬ 
ther federally by Congress, or otherwise, the Su¬ 
preme Executive Council be authorized and empow¬ 
ered to draw on the Treasurer of this State for 
the sum of £500 in favor of and payable to the said 
Thomas Paine. 

“ Signed by order of the House, 

“ John Bayard, Speaker 

CHAELES WILSON PEALE, 

In a letter to Silas Deane, dated Philadelphia, 
July 28, 1779, says: 

“ Believing Mr. Paine to be a firm friend to Amer¬ 
ica, and by personal acquaintance with him, gives 
me an opportunity of knowing that he had done 
more for our common cause than the world, who had 
only seen his publications, could know, I thought it 
my duty to support him.” 



24 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


EEY. SOLOMON SOUTHWICK, 

Printer, politician, and lecturer against Infidelity, 
and, at one time, the editor and publisher of The 
Christian Visiter , says:— 

“No page in history, stained as it is with treach¬ 
ery and falsehood, or cold-blooded indifference to 
right or wrong, exhibits a more disgraceful instance 
of public ingratitude than that which Thomas Paine 
experienced from an age and country which he had 
so faithfully served. As the Tyrtseus of the Kev- 
olution, and it is no exaggeration to style him such, 
we owe everlasting gratitude tP his name and mem¬ 
ory. Why, then, was he suffered to sink into un¬ 
merited silonce and obscurity, —after having, in 
both hemispheres, so signally distinguished him¬ 
self as the friend of liberty and mankind ? Was his 
religion, or want of religion, the real or affected 
cause ? Did not those who feared his talents, make 
his religion a pretext not only to treat him with cold 
neglect, but to strip him, if possible, of every laurel 
he had won in the political field, as the brilliant , 
undaunted and succesful advocate of freedom ? As 
to his religion, or no religion, God alone must be the 
judge of that. No human being, no human tribu¬ 
nal, can claim a right even to censure him for it, 
much less to make it the pretext for defrauding him, 
either in life or death, of the reward due to his pat¬ 
riotism, or the legitimate fame of his exertions in 
the cause of suffering humanity. Had Thomas Paine 
been guilty of any crime, we should be the last to 
eulogize his memory. But we cannot find he ever 
was guilty of any other crime than that of advancing 
his opinions freely upon all subjects connected with 


MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 25 

public liberty and happiness. If he erred in any 
of his opinions, since we know that his intentions 
were pure, we are bound to cover his errors with the 
mantle of charity. We cannot say here all that we 
would wish to say. A brief note is insufficient to 
do justice to so important a subject. We may, how¬ 
ever, safely affirm that Paine’s conduct in America 
was that of a real patriot. In^ the French Conven¬ 
tion he displayed the same pure and disinterested 
spirit; there his humanity shone forth in his exer¬ 
tions to save, at the lisk of his own life, the unfor¬ 
tunate Louis XVI. from the scaffold. His life, it is 
true, was written by a ministerial hireling, who 
strove in vain to blacken his moral character. The 
late James Oheetham, likewise, wrote his life; and 
we have no hesitation in saying, that we knew per¬ 
fectly well at the time the motives of that author 
for writing and publishing a work, which, we have 
every reason to believe, is a libel almost from begin¬ 
ning to end. In fact, Cheetham had become tired 
of this country, and had formed a plan to return to 
England and become a ministerial editor, in opposi¬ 
tion to Cobbett, and his “ Life of Paine ” was writ¬ 
ten to pave his way back again. We, therefore, 
presume that he acted upon the principle that the 
end justified the means. . . . Had Thomas 

Paine been a Grecian or Roman patriot, in olden 
times, and performed the same public services as he 
did for this country, he would have had the honor 
of an Apotheosis* The Pantheon would have been 
opened to him,' and we should at this day regard his 
memory with the same veneration that we do that 
of Socrates and Cicero. But posterity will do him 
3 




26 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


justice. Time, that destroys envy and establishes 
truth, will clothe his' character in the habiliments 
that justly belong to it. . . . We cannot resist 

the disposition to say, that in suffering the home of 
the author of “ Common Sense,” “ The Crisis,” and 
“ The Eights of Man,” to lie neglected, in the first 
place; and, secondly, in permitting it to be violated, 
and his bones shipped off to a foreign country, con¬ 
trary to all the laws of decency and civilization, wc 
have added nothing to the justice or dignity of our 
national character ; and we shall rejoice if impartial 
history tax us not with a gross departure from both. 

JUDGE COOTEE, 

Who was, according to Thomas Jefferson, “One 
of the ablest men in America, and that in several 
branches of science,” thus wrote :— 

“ I was in Paris at this time (1792,) but previ¬ 
ous to my going there, Mr. Paine, whom I had met 
with at Mr. Johnson’s, my bookseller, in St. Paul’s 
Churchyard, gave me letters of introduction to M. 
DeCondorcet, and his wife, Madame DeCondorcet, 
who read and spoke the English language with con¬ 
siderable facility. These letters introduced me to 
the interesting society of that very talented Writer 
and his family. I found the letters of introduction 
of -Mr. Paine honored with that attention which 
might be expected towards an estimable and dis¬ 
tinguished man. ... I have dined with Mr. 
Paine in literary society, at Mr. Tiffins’s* a merchant 
in London, at least- a dozen times, when his dress, 
manners, and conversation were such as became the 
character of an unobtrusive, intelligent gentleman 





MERITS OP THOMAS PAINE. 


27 


accustomed to good society.Paine’s 

opinions on theological topics underwent no change 
before his death.” 


AARON BURR. 

Tn his compendium of the (> Life of Paine,” (New 
York, 1837) Gilbert Vale says: 

“In reply to a query which we recently put to 
Col. Burr, as to Mr. Paine’s alleged vulgarity, in¬ 
temperance, and want of cleanliness, as disseminated 
by those who wished it true, he remarked with dig¬ 
nity, * Sir, he dined at my table' Then, am 1 to 
understand he was a gentleman ? 1 Certainly, sir,’ 
replied Col Burr, ‘I always considered Mr. Paine a 
gentleman, a pleasant companion, and a good natur- 
ed and intelligent man, decidedly temperate, with a 
proper regard to his personal appearance, whenever 
I saw him.* ” 


REV. M. D. CONWAY, 

In a sermon preached in Cincinnati, Ohio. Oja the 
29th of January, 1860, said:— 

“ All efforts to stain the good name of Thomas 
Paine have recoiled on those who made them, like 
poisoned arrows shot against a strong wind. . . . 

In his life, in his justice, in his truth, in his adher¬ 
ence to high principles, in his disinterestedness, 1 look 
in vain for a parallel in those times and in these 
times I am selecting my words. I know I am to 
be held accountable for them. So disinterested was 
he, that when bis works were printed by the ten 
thousand, and as fast as one edition was out another 




28 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


was demanded, he, a poor and pinched author, who 
might very easily have grown rich, would not accept 
one cent for them, declared that he would not coin 
his principles, and made to the States a present of 
the copyrights. His brain was his fortune—nay, his 
living ; he gave it all to American Independence.” 

ARTHUR O’CONNER 

Wrote the following lines, had them printed, and 
distributed them himself, on his way to imprison- 
. ment at Fort George, in 1798 — 

I. 

<£ The pomp of courts and pride of kings, 

1 prize beyond all earthly things; 

1 love my country,—but the king, 

Above all men, his praise I sing; 

The royal banners are displayed 
And may success the standard aid. 

. IL 

u I fain would banish far from hence 
The Rights of Man and Common Sense , 
Confusion to his odious reign, 

That foe to princes—Thomas Paine ! 

Defeat and Ruin seize the cause 
Of France, her liberties and laws.” 

[Read the first line of the second verse imme¬ 
diately after the first line of the first verse—the 
second line of the second verse, after the second line 
of the first, and thus continue throughout to con¬ 
nect the corresponding lines of each verse—having 
previously read them in the usual manner. The 
two modes of reading will he found ingeniously to 
convey distinct and opposite meanings.] 


MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 


29 


R. SHELTON MACKENZIE, D. C. L., 

An author, ci * tic, aud literary editor of great ability, 
in an article ou Muir, the Scotch Reformer, pub¬ 
lished in the Philadelphia Press , said:— 

“Holding the belief that Paiue’s Theological 
works had much bctte.’ never have been written, we 
cannot ignore the fact that he was one of the ablest 
politicians of his time, aud that liberal minds, all 
over the world, recognized him as such. The pub¬ 
lication of his ‘Rights of Man,’ while the French 
Revolution was proceeding, had so greatly alarmed 
Pitt, and the other members of the British Govern¬ 
ment, that a state prosecution was commenced to 
crush himself aud his book.” 

REV. JEDED1AH MORSE, 

In his “Annals of the American Revolution,” says: 

“ A pamphlet, under the signature of 1 Common 
Sense/ written by Thomas Paine, produced a great 
effect. While it demonstrates the uecessity, the 
advantages, and the practicability of Independence, 
it treats kingly government with opprobrium, and 
hereditary succession with ridicule. The change of 
the public mind on this occasion is without a paral¬ 
lel” 


TIMOTHY TITKINS, 

In his political and Civil History of the United 
States, says:—“Common Sense” produced a won¬ 
derful effect in the different Colonies in favor of In¬ 
dependence. 

3 ° 




30 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


MAEY HOWITT, 

In her “History of the United States,” says:— 
“Early in this year (1776) Thomas Paine, a 
recent emigrant to America, and editor of the Penn¬ 
sylvania Magazine , published a pamphlet, called 
‘ Common Sense,* which spoke at once the secret 
sentiment of the people. It went direct to the 
point, showing, in the simplest but strongest lan¬ 
guage, the folly of keeping up the British connec¬ 
tion, and the absolute necessity which existed for 
separation. The cause of Independence took, as it 
were, a definite form from this momeut.” 

HON. SALMA HALE, 

In bis “History of the United States,” says:— 

“A pamphlet, entitled ‘Common Sense,’ written 
by Mr. Thomas Paine, an Englishman, was univer¬ 
sally read, and most highly admired. In language, 
plain, forcible, and singularly well fitted to oper¬ 
ate on the public mind, he portrayed the excellen¬ 
cies of Bepublican institutions, and attacked, with 
happy and successful ridicule, the principles of 
hereditary government. The effect of the pamphlet 
in making converts was astonishing, and is probably 
without precedent in the annals of literature.” 

CHAELES JAMES EOX, 

The English statesman, said of Paine’s “ Eights of 
Man” : — 

“ It seems as clear and as simple as the first rule 
of arithmetic.” 


MERITS OP THOMAS PAINE. 


31 


MARY L. BOOTH, 

In her excellent “History of New York,” alluding 
to the opposition to Independence manifested by the 
masses in the early part of the struggle, says:— 

“At this juncture ‘Common Sense’ was pub¬ 
lished in Philadelphia, by Thomas Paine and elec¬ 
trified the whole nation with the spirit of Independ¬ 
ence and Liberty. This eloquent production severed 
the last link that bound the Colonies to the mother 
country; it boldly gave speech to the arguments 
which had long been trembling on the lips of many, 
but which none before had found courage to utter; 
and, accepting its conclusions, several of the Colo¬ 
nies instructed their delegates, in the Continental 
Congress, to close their eyes against the ignis 
fatuus of loyalty, and fearlessly to throw off their 
allegiance to the Crown.” 

REY. WILLIAM GORDON, 

In his “History of the Revolution,” says: (vol. 2, 
p. 78, New York, 1794.) 

“ The publications which have appeared have 
• greatly promoted the spirit of Independence, but no 
one so much as the pamphlet under the signature of 
‘Common Sense,’ written by Mr. Thomas Paine, an 
Englishman. Nothing could have been better timed 
than this performance. It has produced most as¬ 
tonishing effects.” 

An American girl once observed of Mr. Paine, 
that tl His head was like an orange—it had a separ¬ 
ate apartment for everything it contained.” 




32 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


GEN". WM. A.. STOKES, 

A distinguished member of the Bar of Pennsylvania, 
and by no means an admirer of Paine, is obliged, 
like Cheetham, to confess that the author of “Com¬ 
mon Sense” and the “Crisis ”— 

“Eagerly embraced the caus^ of the Colonies, 
and was soon to act an important and meritorious 
part. When ‘ Common Sense ’ was published, a great 
blow w s struck—it was lelfc from New England to 
the Carolinas, it resounded throughout the world. 
° ° ° He not only reasoned, lie flattered; he 
Availed himself of prejudice, he dealt freely in in¬ 
vective. For this I do not censure him; for the 

TRIBUNE OF THE VEOPLE, WHOSE WORDS WERE TO 

dismember an em pj re, might well resort to all the 
aids of art in accomplishing his stupendous task. 
° ° 0 Paine’s brawny arm applied the torch which 
set the country iu a flame, to be extinguished only 
by the relinquishment of British supremacy, and for 
this, irrespective of his motives and character, he 
MERITS TIIE GRATITUDE OF EVERY AMERICAN.” 

SAMUEL BEY AN, 

Secretary to Council of Ceusors on Pennsylvania 
Constitution, 1776, said:— 

“ This book, ‘Common Sense,’ may be called the 
book of Genesis, for it was the beginning. From 
this book sprang the declaration of Independence, 
that not only laid the foundation of liberty in our 
own country, but the good of mankind throughout 
the world.” 


J 


MERITS OP THOMAS PAINE. 33 

PAUL ALLEN, 

Tn his “History of the American Revolution,”says: 

“Among the numerous writers tan this momentous 
question, the most luminous, the most eloquent, and 
the most forcible, was Thomas Paine. His pamph¬ 
let, entitled * Common Sense,’ was not only read, 
but understood, by everybody. It contained plain 
and simple truths, told in a style and language that 
came home to the heart of every man; and those 
who regard the independence of the United States 
as a blessing, will never cease to cherish the remem¬ 
brance of Thomas Paine. Whatever may have been 
his subsequent career—in whatever light his moral 
or religious principles may be regarded, it should 
never be forgotten that to him, more than to any 
single individual, was owing the rapid diffusion of 
those sentiments and feelings which produced the 
act of separation from Great Britain.” 

ROBERT BISSET, LL.D., 

In his “Life of Edmund Burke,” says:— 

“ A pamphlet, entitled ‘ Common Sense,’ pub¬ 
lished by Thomas Paine, afterwards so famous in 
Europe, contributed very much to the ratification of 
; the independence of America.” ° 0 ° 

In his “History of the Reign of George III.,” 
Bissetsays:— 

“ Thomas Paine was represented (in England) as 
the minister of God, diffusing light to a darkened 
world.” 





34 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


BICHARD IIILDEETH, 

In his “ History of the United States,” sayS:— 
“No little excitement was produced by the pub¬ 
lication, in Philadelphia, about this time (1776) ot 
‘Commou Sense,’ a pamphlet by Thomas Paine. 0 yo 
It argued in that plain and convincing style, for 
which Paine was so distinguished, the folly of any 
longer attempting to keep up the British connection, 
and the absolute necessity of a final and formal 
separation. Pitched exactly to the popular tone, it 
had a wide circulation throughout the Colonies, and 
gave a powerful impulse to the cause of Independ¬ 
ence.” 


THOMAS CLIO KICK MAN, 

Author of a number of poems, talcs, and political 
pamphlets, says:— 

“ Why seek occasions, surly critics and detractors, 
to maltreat and misrepresent Mr. Paiue? He was 
mild, unoffending, sincere, gentle, humble, and un¬ 
assuming ; his talents were soaring, acute, profound, 
extensive, and original; and he possessed that char¬ 
ity which covers a multitude of sins.” 

W. H. EABTLETT, 

In his History of the United States of America,” 
says:— 

“ It was at this critical period, while this feeling, 
though inoperative, yet lingered in the minds of the 
people, and when, although the thing itself had be¬ 
come familiarized to most minds as equally neces¬ 
sary and desirable, every one held back from boldly 


MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 


35 


pronouncing the word Independence, that there ap¬ 
peared a pamphlet called ‘Common Sense,’ written 
by Thomas Paine, the celebrated author of the 
‘ Eights of Man,’ who had recently emigrated from 
England, and ardently embraced the American 
cause. Pcree ; ving the hesitation in the public mind, 
he set himself to the work of dissipating it by a 
clear and convincing statement of the actual posi¬ 
tion of a if airs. He plainly exposed the impossibility 
of tf lasting reconciliation with England, and showed 
that Independence had not only become the only 
safe or honorable course, but that it was as practi¬ 
cable as it was desirable. ° ° ° ° This pamphlet, 
written in a popular and convincing 6tyle, and ex¬ 
pressly adapted to the state of public feeling, pro¬ 
duced an indescribable sensation. The ice was now 
broken ; those who, although convinced, had hitherto 
held back, came boldly forward, while many who 
had halted between two opinions now yielded to the 
force of necessity and embraced the popular side.” 

TAMES THOMPSON CALIENEES, 

Iu his “Sketches of the History of America,” says 
(1798):— 

' ** On tufas, Thomas Paine has written with great 

success; and this is ore reason why the friends of 
order hate him. Abuse of this author is now as 
naturally expected in a Eederal newspaper as tea 
and chocolate in a grocer’s store. To such things 
compare two resolutions of Congress of the 26th of 
August and 3d of October, 17S5. In consequence 
of his ‘ early, unsolicited, and continued labors in 



36 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


explaining and enforcing the principles of the late 
Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications, 
upon the nature of liberty and civil government,’ 
they direct the board of treasury to pay him three 
thousand dollars. This attestation outweighs the 
clamor of the six per cent, orators. They dread, 
they revile, and, if able, they would persecute 
Thomas Paine, because he possesses talents and 
courage sufficient to rend asunder the mantle of 
speculation, and to delineate the rickety growth of 
our public debt.” 

DR. JOHN W. FRANCIS, 

Of New York, said:— 

“ No work had the demand for readers comparable 
to that of Paine. * The Age of Reason ’. on its first 
appearance in New York was printed as an ortho¬ 
dox book, by orthodox publishers, doubtless deceived 
by the vast repown which the author of ‘ Common 
Sense’ had obtained.” 

BENJ. F. BOSSING 

Says: “It (Common Sense) was the earliest and 
most powerful appeal in behalf of Independence, and 
probably did more to fix that idea firmly in the 
public mind than any other instrumentality.”— 
[ Field, Book of Revolution , vol. ii., p. 274. 

“ The flame of desire for absolute independence 
glowed in every patriot' bosom at the beginning of 
1776, and the vigorous paragraphs of ‘Common 
Sense,’ and kindred publications, laboring with the 
voice of impassioned oratory at every public gather¬ 
ing of the people, uncapped -the volcano.”— \_Ibid } 
p. 277. 


MERITS OF 'THOMAS PAINE. 


49 


HENRY G. WATSON, 

In his “ History of the United States,” says:— 
“A pamphlet, entitled ‘Common Sense,’ written 
by Thomas Paine, arguing, in plain language, the 
advantage and necessity of Independence, effected a 
complete revolution in the feelings and sentiments 
of the great mass of the people.” 

CAPEL LOEET, 

An English barrister, poet, and miscellaneous 
writer, made ‘ use of the following language, in a 
letter to T. C. Rickman, in 1795, after strongly 
criticising the “ Age of Reason ” :— 

“ I am glad Paine is living; he cannot be even 
wrong without enlightening mankind ; such is the 
vigor of his intellect, such the acuteness of his re¬ 
search, and such the force and vivid perspicuity of 
his expression.” 


MR, BOND, 

An English Surgeon, who was confined in the 
Luxembourg prison in Paris, at the same time Paine 
was, and who disagreed with him in both political 
and theological matters’ asserts that: 

“ Mr. Paine, while hourly expecting to die, read 
to me parts of his ‘ Age of Reason,’ and every night, 
when 1 left him to be separately locked up, and ex¬ 
pected not to see him alive in the morning, he al¬ 
ways expressed his firm belief in the principles of 
that book, and begged I would tell the world such 
were his dying opinions. He often said that if he 




50 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


lived he should prosecute further that work and 
print it.” 

Mr. Bond has frequently observed, says Rickman, 
the poet, that Paine was—“ The most conscientious 
man he ever knew.” 

WILLIAM SMYTHE, 

In his “ Lectures on Modern History,” speaking 
of the “ American Revolution,” says : 

“ You will now observe the arguments that were 
used; you will see them in the very celebrated pam¬ 
phlet—his 1 Common Sense'—a pamphlet whose ef¬ 
fect was such that it was quite a feature in this 
memorable contest. You may now read it, and won¬ 
der how a performance not marked, as you may at- 
first sight suppose, with any particular powers of elo¬ 
quence, could possibly produce effects so striking. 

. . . The pamphlet of Paine was universally 

read and admired in America, and is said to have 
contributed most materially to the vote of Indepen¬ 
dence, passed by Congress in 1776.” 

REV. ABIEL HOLMES, 

In his “ Annals of America,” says :— 

“ A pamphlet under the signature of ‘ Common 
Sense/ written by Thomas Paine, produced great 
effect. While it demonstrated the necessity, the ad¬ 
vantages, and the practicability of Independence, it 
treated kingly government with opprobrium, and 
hereditary succession with ridicule. The change of 
the public mind on this occasion is without a par¬ 
allel.” 






MERITS OP THOMAS PAINE. 


51 


GUILLAUME TELL POUSSIN, 

In his work entitled “ The United States; its 
Power and Progress,” says of the influence of Paine’s, 
writings: 

“The condition of affairs day by day assumed a 
graver aspect. The unequal struggle between Eng¬ 
land and the still growing Colonies gave a decided 
preponderence to ideas of Independence. Several 
remarkable productions seemed to favor this enthu¬ 
siasm. That of Thomas Paine, entitled ‘ Common 
Sense,’ exerted an overpowering influence. It ren¬ 
dered the sentiment of Independence national; and 
Congress, being the organ of public opinion, soon 
prepared to adopt this sentiment. By the resolution 
of the 8th of May, 1776, each Colony was requested 
to reject all authority emananating from the British 
Crown, and to establish a form of government that 
would accord with the particular interest of each 
State, and with that of tbe whole Confederation.” 

“ Paine also wrote a series of political pamphlets 
called ‘ The Crisis,’ which were admirably adapted 
to the state of the times, and which did much to¬ 
ward keeping alive the'spirit of determined rebel¬ 
lion against the unjust government of Great Britain.” 
—[Benjamin E. Lossing, in his Field Book of the 
Be volution, Vol. II. p. 274, Note. 

“Washington’s retreat to Trenton was a compul¬ 
sive one.I do not believe that even a 

number of « The Crisis ’ could have saved the Amer¬ 
ican army and cause from annihilation, if Howe had 



52 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


been an active and persevering, an enlightened and 
energetic commander/’—[Cheetham’s Life of Paine, 

“ Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of Biography ” says r- 1 - 

V He (Paine) then published his celebrated pam¬ 
phlet, ‘Common Sense,’ which, being written with 
great vigor, and addressed to a highly excited popu¬ 
lation, had a prodigious sale, and undoubtedly accel¬ 
erated the famous Declaration of Independence. 

. He arrived in Calais, in September, 1792. 
The garrison at Calais were under arms to receive 
this ‘ friend of liberty,’ the tri-colored cockade was 
presented to him by the mayor, and the handsomest 
woman in the town was selected to place it in his 
hat. Meantime Paine had been declared in Paris 
worthy the honors of citizenship, and he proceeded 
thither, where he was received with every demon¬ 
stration of extravagant joy.” 

“ The last ‘ Crisis’ was published in Philadelphia 
April 19th, 1783. Peace was now substantially 
concluded, and the Independence of the United 
States acknowledged. He who, if not the suggester, 
was the ablest literary advocate of Independence, 
could do no less, when Independence was acquired, 
than salute the nation on the great event.”—[Ibid. 

The author of “ The Beligion of Science,” in his 
introduction to his Life of Paine, published by Cal¬ 
vin Blanchard, of New York, says : 

“ There needs but to have the light of truth shine 
fully upon the real character of Thomas Paine, to 
prove him to have been a far greater man than his 
most ardent admirers have hitherto given him credit 
for being.” 


APPENDIX. 


BENJAMIN EBANKLIN AND THOMAS 
PAINE. 

“ Don't Unchain the Tiger.” 

The sectarian enemies of Thomas Paine, more es¬ 
pecially those of the Evangelical or Orthodox faith, 
have been unsparing in their efforts to ruin his char¬ 
acter and reputation. They have evidently been in¬ 
stigated to this dastardly course by the publication 
of his anti-theological work, the celebrated “ Age of 
Reason Had Paine never written that proscribed 
and branded volume, his memory would no doubt be 
as honored and as much revered as that of Washing¬ 
ton. But, then, Paine would not be the thoroughly 
mental, as well as political, reformer that he was. 

He showed himself the fearless and uncompro¬ 
mising enemy of Pries'ts as well as Kings, and as his 
“Rights of Man ” gave the death-blow to King¬ 
craft, his “ Age of Reason ” did the same work for 
Priestcraft. 

The priesthood have never forgiven him, and nev¬ 
er will. They have invented almost every kind of 
falsehood against him, and amongst the rest of their 
unscrupulous designs is an Orthodox tract entitled 
“ Don't unchain the Tiger ” ! purporting to be the 
substance of a letter written by Benjamin Franklin 
to Thomas Paine, in order to discourage the latter 
from publishing his “ Age of Reason ” It is one 
of those pious frauds which, abound in the Christian 
world, and which have their origin in ecclesiastical 
prejudice, calumny, and hatred. As we have remark¬ 
ed of this story— 







54 


APPENDIX. 


It purports to have been written by Benjamin 
Franklin to Thomas Paine, to persuade him from 
publishing his ‘‘Age of Beason.” But we doubt 
the truth of this story, because Franklin had been 
dead three years before the “ Age of Keason ” was 
written. Therefore Franklin could not have written 
against it, unless he came back and wrote as a 
“ spirit,” which is not very probable. 

Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia on the 
17th of April, 1790. 

Thomas Paine dates his first part of the Age of 
Reason, Paris, Jan. 27, (0. S.,) 1794,^nearly four 
years after the death of Franklin. 

In his Preface to the Second Part of the Age of 
Reason,. Paine says:—“I have mentioned in the 
former part of the Age of Reason that it had long 
been my intention to publish my thoughts upon re¬ 
ligion ; but that I had reserved it to a later pe¬ 
riod in life, intending it to be the last work I should 
undertake. The circumstances existing in France 
in the latter end of the year 1793, determined me to 
delay it no loDgor. The just and humane principles 
of the revolution, which philosophy had first diffus¬ 
ed, had been departed from. The idea, always dan¬ 
gerous to society as it is derogatory to the Almighty, 
that priests could forgive sins, though it seemed to 
exist no longer, had blunted the feelings of human¬ 
ity, and callously prepared men for the commission 
of all manner of crimes. The intolerant spirit of 
church persecutions had transferred itself into poli¬ 
tics; the tribunal, styled revolutionary, supplied 
the place of an inquisition ; and the guillotine and 
the stake outdid the fire and faggot of the church. 
I saw many of my most intimate friends destroyed; 
others daily carried to prison ; and I had reason to 


APPENDIX. 


55 


believe, and had also intimations given me, that the 
same danger was approaching myself. 

“Under these disadvantages, I began the former 
part of the Aye of Reason ; I had, besides, neith¬ 
er Bible nor Testament to refer to, though I was 
writing against both, nor could I procure any ; not¬ 
withstanding which, I have produced a work that no 
Bible believer, though writing at his ease, and with 
a library of church books about him, can refute.— 
Towards the latter end of December of that year, a 
motion was made and carried to exclude foreigners 
from the Convention. 

“^Conceiving, after this, that I had but few days of 
liberty, I sat down and brought the work to a close 
as speedily as possible; and I had not finished it 
more than six hours, in the state it has since ap¬ 
peared, before a guard came there about three in 
the morning, with an order signed by the two com¬ 
mittees of public safety and surety-general, for put¬ 
ting me under arrest as a foreigner, and conveyed 
me to the prison at Luxembourg. I contrived on 
my way there to call on Joel Barlow, and I put the 
manuscript of. the work into his hands, as more safe 
than in my possession in prison; and not knowing 
what might be the fate in Trance, either of the wri-' 
ter or the work, I addressed it to the protection of 
the citizens of the United States.’’ 

Then, again, as Franklin himself was an Infidel, 
he would not have been likely to write against his 
own principles. This is not at all characteristic of 
a man who was candid and independent in every¬ 
thing. Instead of saying, “ Don't unchain the ti¬ 
ger,” meaning thereby the diffusion of Deism, he 
would very likely have said, “ Do unchain him,” as 
Franklin was a Deist as well as Paine, and strongly 



56 


APPENDIX. 


devoted to what he regarded as truth. We should 
as soon think of Dr. Beecher persuading a brother in 
his faith not to publish a book in favor of Orthodoxy, 
as Franklin persuading Paine not to publish his 
views in support of Deism. One idea is not more 
absurd than the other. 

AVe conclude, therefore, from these premises, that 
Franklin never wrote the letter in question, but that 
it is a pious forgery, invented after his death for the 
purpose of giving the influence of his popular name 
against the Patriot author of the “ Age of Keason,” 
This conclusion is more rational than to suppose that 
Franklin would write in opposition to his own prin¬ 
ciples ; nor is it inconsistent with truth, for it is a 
well-established fact, that unscrupulous men, in 
their efforts to advance religion, have resorted to 
pious frauds. 

As for the great question, so considered, in the 
above Orthodox tract, namely—“ If men are so wick¬ 
ed with religion what would they be without it ? ” 
the answer is, they would be a great deal better off, 
for it is religion that makes them wicked. When 
irreligion or Infidelity was comparatively unknown, 
and religion had supreme sway, every enormity that 
the most fertile imagination could invent was prac¬ 
ticed by Christians under the pretended authority 
of “ Thus saith the Lord ” and the sanction of the 
Bible; and it has only been in proportion as man¬ 
kind have become Liberal or Infidel, that they have 
become less wicked and these enormities have ceased. 
Every priest, acquainted with ecclesiastical history, 
knows this fact, but not one in a thousand of the 
tribe has the candor to own it, for they are aware 
that a religion founded on imposture tLpends upon 
t for existence. 


APPENDIX. 


57 


The,following song, though the same metre as the 
“Star Spangled Banner,” was written by Mr. Paine 
many years before the production of our national 
song by Mr. Key, and was originally published un¬ 
der the title of 

“ THE BOSTON PATRIOTIC SONG.” 

Ye sons of Columbia who bravely have fought 

For those rights which unstain’d from your sires have 
descended, 

May you long taste the blessings your valor has bought, 
And your sons reap the soil which your fathers de¬ 
fended ; 

Mid the reign of mild peace 
May your nation increase 

With the glory of Rome, and the wisdom of Greece ; 
And ne’er may the sons of Columbia be slaves 
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its 
waves. 

The fame of our arms, of our laws the mild sway, 

Plad justly ennobled our nation in story, 

’Till the dark clouds of faction obscured our bright day 
And envelop’d the sun of American glory; 

But let traitors be told, 

Who their country have sold, 

And bartered their God for his image in gold, 

That ne’er shall the sons, &c. 

While France her huge limbs bathes recumbent in 
blood, 

And society’s base, threats with wide dissolution • 
May peace like the dove, that returned from the flood, 
Find an ark of abode in our mild constitution; 

But though peace is our aim, 

Yet the boon we disclaim. 

If bought by our sovereignty, justice, or fame, 

For ne’er shall the sons, &c. 



58 


APPENDIX. 


’Tis the fire of the flint each American warms, % 

Let Rome’s haughty victors beware of collision ! 

Let them bring all the vassals of Europe in arms, 

We’re a world by ourselves, and disdain a division 
While with patriot pride 
To our laws we’re allied, 

No foe can subdue us, no faction divide,* 

For ne’er shall the sons, &c. 

Let our patriots destroy vile anarchy’s worm, 

Lest our liberty’s growth should be check’d by cor¬ 
rosion, 

Then let clouds thicken round us, we heed not the 
storm, 

Our earth fears' no shock but the earth’s own explo¬ 
sion. 

Foes assail us in vain, 

Though their fleets bridge the main, 

For our altars and claims, with our lives we’ll main¬ 
tain. 

For ne’er shall the sons, &c. 

Let Fame, to the world, sound America’s voice, 

No intrigue can her sons from their government sever j 
Its wise regulations and laws are their choice, 

And shall flourish till Liberty -slumber forever. 

Then unite heart and hand, 

Like Leonidas’ band, 

And swear by the God of the ocean and land, 

That ne’er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, 
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls 
its waves. 


/ 




THE AUTHOR-HERO, 

Head at the celebration of the Birthday of Thomas 
Paine, at St. Louis, (Mo.,) Jan. 29, 1874. 

When buried heroes come to life, 

And speak in memories of the past, 

Columbia’s army in the strife 
For liberty, shall not be last, 

And nobly marching with the throng, 

“ Who fought and bled for freedom’s reign,” 

Shall come the man of thought and song, 

The 44 author-kero,” Thomas Paine. 

When France shall lift her banners fair, 

And brighter hopes shall dawn once more, 

In counting up her jewels rare, 

She’ll not forget the days of yore. 

For w hen the name of Lafayette 
Shall summon others in its train, * 

There’s one they never will forget. 

The 4 • author-hero,” Thomas Paine. 

When England’s pride shall be to sing 
Of those who swell her grand array, 

More noble yet than lord or king, 

Great Nature’s Aristocracy ; 

By meed of service fitly done, 

By manhood raised in heart and brain • 

Kecalled shall be her outlawed son, 

The 44 author-hero,” Ihomas Paine. 

When priestcraft dies amid the shouts 
Of men who act with ‘‘ common sense,” 

And creeds their folly prove, in doubts 
Which end in proving their pretence ; 

And when the 44 age of reason ” brings 
That better day, w T e’ll ne er complain, 

And talk no more of priests and kings, 

But of our hero, Thomas Paine ! 

And when the world shall learn the tale 
So finely told by noble deed. 

They’ll from his memory lift the veil 
Now resting on the mighty dead ; 

And in his place aloft he’ll stand, 

And priests may howl and curse in vain ; 

For truth and justice, hand in hand, 

Shall keep our hero, Thomas Paine J 


% 


PAINE’S RELIGIOUS CREED. 

Extract from the 11 Age of Reason.” — 1794. 




I c It has been my intention, for several years past, to 
publish my thoughts upon religion. I intended it to be 
the last offering I should make to my fellow citizens of 
all nations, and that at a time when the purity of the 
motive that induced me to it, could not admit of a 
question, even by those who might disapprove of the 
work. 

u I believe in one God and no more; and I hope for 
happiness beyond this life. 

“ I believe the equality of man ; and I believe that 
religious duties consist in doing justice, laying mercy, 
and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy. 

u But some perhaps will say—Are we to have no 
word of God—no revelation! I answer, Yes; there is 
a word of God ; there is a revelation. 

II The word of God is the Creation we Behold: 

and it is in this word , which no human invention can 
counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to 
man. # # * It preaches to all nations and to all 

worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that 
is necessary for man to know of God. 

u Do we want to contemplate his power ! We see 
it in the immensity of the Creation. Do we want to 
contemplate his wisdom! We see it in the unchange¬ 
able order by which the incomprehensible whole is 
governed. Do we want to contemplate his munifi¬ 
cence! We see it in the abundance with which he 
fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy! 
We see it in his not withholding that abundance even 
from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know 
what God is! Search not the book called the Scrip- 
ture, which any human hand might make, but the 
Scripture called the Creation. ;; 








. MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 


37 


DR. LADD, 

A proraineut poet of the Revolution, and, of course, 
like Ramsay, Allen, Botta, Gordon, and others, 
cited in this little work, a cotemporary of Thomas 
Paine, pays the following eloquent and glowing 
tribute to that remarkable man : — 

11 Long live the man, in early contest found, 

Who spoke his heart when dastards trembled round; 
Who, fired with more than Greek or Roman rage, 
Flashed truth on tyrants trom his manly page— 
Immortal Paine! whose pen surprised we saw, 

Could fashion Empires while it kindled awe. 

When first with awful front to crush her foes, 

All bright in glittering arms, Columbia rose, 

From thee our sons the generous mandate took, 

As'if from Heaven some oracle had spoke ; 

And when thy pen revealed the grand design, 

} l'ivas doue—Columbia’s liberty was thine.” 

JAMES CHEETHAM, 

The notorious apootate, speaking of whose “Life of 
Paine,” a Christian cotemporary of his remarked, 
“ We have every reason to believe it is a libel 

ALMOST FROM BEGINNING TO END,” is Compelled tO 
admit, speaking ot Paines “Common Sense,’ that: 
(See “ Life of Paine ” pp. 45-6.) 

“ This pamphlet of 40 octavo pages, holding out 
relief by proposing Independence to an oppressed 
and despairing people, was published in January, 
1776. Speaking a language which the Colonists 
had felt but not thought, its popularity, terrible in 
its consequences to the parent country, was unex¬ 
ampled in the history of the press. At first, in- 


38 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


volving the Colonists, it was thought, in the crime 
of rebellion, and pointing to a road leading inevit¬ 
ably to ruin, it was read with indignation and 
alarm, but when the reader (and everybody read it) 
recovering from the first shock, reperused it, its 
arguments, nourishing his feelings and appealing 
to his pride, re-animated his hopes and satisfied his 
understanding, that ‘ Common Sense,’ backed by 
the resources and forces of the Colonies, poor and 
feeble as they were, could alone rescue them from the 
unqualified oppression with which they were threat¬ 
ened.” “ His pen was an appendage to the army 
of Independence as necessary and as formidable as 
its cannon. Having no property he fared as the 
army fared. ° ° ° When the Colonists drooped, he 
revived them with a * Crisis.’ The object of it was 
good, the method excellent, and the language suited 
to the depressd spirits of the army .”—(Life of 
Paine, page 65. 

“ His (Paine’s) career was wonderful, even for 
the age of miraculous events he lived in In Amer¬ 
ica he was a revolutionary hero of the first rank, 
who carried letters in his pocket from George Wash¬ 
ington, thanking him for his services ; and he man¬ 
aged besides to write his name in large letters in 
the history of England and France .”—[Atlantic 
Monthly, vol. 4, p. 16. 

“ The Democratic movement of the last eighty 
years, be it a ‘ finality ’ or only a phase of progress 
towards a more perfect state, is the grand historical 
fact of modern times, and Paine’s name is intimately 
connected with it.”— \_lbid,p. 17. 


\ 


MERITS OP THOMAS PAINE. 


39 


HENEY S. -RANDALL,, 

In his * ( Life of Jefferson," says : — 

“ We confess we have no sympathy with Mr. 
Paines’s religious views. If his personal character 
was what is commonly alleged to have been, (though 
it is now said there has been a good deal of exagge¬ 
ration, and even out and out invention on this 
head,) there was much in it no man can admire.— 
But concede all the allegations against him, and it 
still leaves him the author of 1 Common Sense,’ and 
certain other papers, which rung like clarions in the 
darkest hour of the Eevolutionary struggle, inspir¬ 
ing the bleeding, and starving, and pestilence-strick¬ 
en, as the pen of no other man ever inspired them. 
Whatever Paine’s faults or vices, however dark and 
crapulous the close of his stormy career, when he is 
spoken of as the patriot, and especially as the Revo¬ 
lutionary and pre-Revolutionary writer, shame rest 
on the pen which dares not to do him justice ! and 
shame, also, ought to rest on the most cursory nar¬ 
rator of the events which heralded the Declaration 
of Independence, who should omit to enumerate the 
publication of ‘ Common Sense ’ among them." 

THE AUTHOR OF “ THE ANALYST," 

Published by Wiley & Putnam, New York, 1840, 
says of Paine :— 

*< It is allowed by all liberal judges, that, in his 
* Common Sense ’ and 4 The Crisis,’ he strengthened 
in the American mind its aspirations after liberty; 
gave them the right direction, manfully exhorted 
them in their wavering hour; and acted the part of 
a freeman and an active friend to humanity." 


40 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


THE NEW YORK ADVERTISER, 

Of June 9th, 1809, has the following notice:— 
“Mr. Thomas Paine.— 

“ * Thy spirit. Independence, let me share.’—[Smollett. 

“With heartfelt sorrow and poignant regret we 
are compelled to announce to the world that Mr. 
Thomas Paine is no more. This distinguished phi¬ 
lanthropist, whose life was devoted to the cause of 
humanity, departed this life yesterday morning, and 
if any man's memory deserved a place in the breast 
of a. freeman, it is that of the deceased, for 

“ ‘ Take him for all in all, 

We ne’er shall look upon his like again.* 

li The friends of the deceased are invited to at¬ 
tend his funeral by 9 o’clock in the morning, from 
his late residence at Greenwich, from whence his 
corpse will be conveyed to New Rochelle for inter- 
meut. 

“ ‘ His a<hes there, 

His fame everywhere.’ ” 

WATSON, 

In his u Annals of Philadelphia,” says :— 

“ in June, 1785, John Pitch called on the ingen¬ 
ious William Henry, Esq., of Lancaster, to take his 
opinion of bis draughts, who informed him that he 
(Pitch) was not the first person who had thought of 
applying steam to vessels, for that Thomas Paine, 
author of ‘Common Sense,’ had suggested the same 
to him, (Henry) in the winter of 1778.” 



MERITS OE THOMAS PAINE. 


41 


WALTER MORTON, 

In a short narrative of Paine, says:— 

“ In his religious opinions he continued to the last 
as steadfast and tenacious as any sectarian to the 
definition of his own creed. He never, indeed, 
broached the subject first, but to intrusive and in¬ 
quisitive visitors, who came to try him on that point, 
his general answer was to this effect: “ My opinions 
are now before the world, and all have an opportu¬ 
nity to refute them if they can. I believe them un¬ 
answerable truths, and that I have done gjeat ser¬ 
vice to mankind by boldly putting them forth. I do 
not wish to argue upon the subject now. I have la¬ 
bored disinterestedly in the cause of truth.’ I shook 
his hand after his use of speech was gone; but, 
while the other organs told me sufficiently that he 
knew me and appreciated my affection, his eye glis¬ 
tened with genius under the pangs of death.” 

GECAGE JACOB HOLYOAKE, 

Author of (i The Trial of Theism,” &c., and edi¬ 
tor of the “London Reasoner,” says : — 

“ Paine, like Defoe, was the personation of Eng¬ 
lish common sense. . . . Paine was the Proph¬ 

et of American Destiny—the great Pamphleteer of 
its independence. ... He was the Thinker 
for the People. He found out the obvious thoughts 
of the period, and showed them to the nation, and 
created those which were wanting. . . . Paine’s 

merits and demerits were all popular. His errors 
were broad and his virtues hearty. There was noth¬ 
ing small or mean about him. He was a strong man 


42 


TESTIMONIALS TO TIIE 


all through. The man who was the confidant of 
Burke, (before the unhappy days when Burke’s rea¬ 
son failed him,) the counsellor of Franklin, and the 
friend and colleague of Washington, must have had 
great qualities. . If Paine was coarse, he had 
capacity and integrity; if the oak was gnarled, it 
had strength—if the ore was rough there was gold 
in it. . . Let us do justice to him.” 

* 

THE UNIVEBSAL MAGAZINE AND BEY IE W 

Eor April, 1793, concludes a review of “ The 
Bights of Man ” with these words: — 

“ And now, courteous reader, we leave Mr. Paine 
entirely to thy mercy ; what wilt thou say of him? 
Wilt thou address him? ‘Thou art a troubler of 
privileged orders—we will tar and feather thee; no¬ 
bles abhor thee, and kir.gs think thee mad ! ’ Or 
wilt thou rather put on thy spectacles, study Mr. 
Paine’s physiognomy, purchase his print, hang it 
over thy chimney-piece, and, pointing to it, say:— 

* this is 7io common man ; this is the poor man’s 
FRIEND 1 ’ ” 


ALEXANDEB ANDBEWS, 

In his “ History of British Journalism,” says: 

“ Soon after this u Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, pub¬ 
lished at irregular periods, but all numbered and 
paged like newspapers, and named the ‘ American 
Crisis,’ appeared, and first pronounced the words 
which had been faltering upon so many blanched 
lips, and trembling tongues of men who shuddered 
as they saw the only alternative more plainly—In¬ 
dependence and Separation.” 



MERITS OF TIIOMAS PAINE. 


43 


STEPHEN SIMPSON, 

Author of the u Life of Stephen Girard,” &c., says, 
in his “ Lives of Washington and Jefferson with a 
parallel ” :— 

“ To these followed pamphlets and essays ; among 
which stood in bold aud prominent relief, distin¬ 
guished for its eloquence, patriotism, and energy, 
the 4 Common Sense * of Thomas Paine ; which, com¬ 
bining great force of language and power of argu¬ 
ment with an irresistible array of facts and prin¬ 
ciples, too obvious to be denied, and too reasonable 
to be confuted, carried conviction to every mind at 
the same time that they enlisted the most ardent 
feelings in the cause of liberty and independence; 
agitating the calm and temperate with a glowing 
love of country, and infusing irresistible enthusiasm 
into the bosoms of the ardent champions of the 
4 Eights of Man.’ . . . Lucid in his style, forci¬ 

ble in his diction, and happy in his illustrations, he 
threw the charms of poetry over the statue of rea¬ 
son, and made converts to liberty as if a power of 
fascination presided over his pen. . . 'The writ¬ 

ings of Thomas Paine have been admitted to have 
had more influence in the accomplishment of the 
separation of the Colonies from the mother country 
than any other cause. ... To the genius of 
Thomas Paine, as a popular writer, and to that of 
George Washington, as a prudent, skillful, and con¬ 
summate general, are the American people indebted 
for their rights, liberties, and independence. The 
high opinion of Paine, entertained by Washington, 
and publicly expressed by the latter, sheds fresh 
lustre on the incomparable merits of the great leader 
of the Army of the Bevolution.” 



44 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


MARQUIS DE CHA^TELLEUX, 

Author of a work on “ Public Happiness,” and n 
cherished friend of General Washington, thus speaks 
of Paine in his “ Travels in America ” :— 

“ I know not how it happened, that since my ar¬ 
rival in America, I had not yet seen Mr. Paine, 
that author so celebrated in America and through¬ 
out Europe, by his excellent work entitled ‘ Common 
Sense,’ and several other political pamphlets. M. 
De Lafayette and myself had asked the permission 
of an interview for the 14th, in the morning, and 
we waited on him accordingly with Col. Laurens. 
I discovered at his apartments all the attributes of 
a man of letters, a room pretty much in disorder, 
dusty furniture, and a large table covered with 
books, lying open, and manuscripts begun. . . . 

Having formerly held a post in Government, he has 
now no connection with it: and as his patriotism 
and his talents are unquestionable, it is natural to 
conclude that the vivacity of his imagination, and 
the independence of his character, render him more 
calculated for reasoning on affairs than for conduct¬ 
ing them.” 


EDMUND BURKE, 

The celebrated Statesman and Orator, whose “ Re¬ 
flections on the French Revolution ” called forth the 
“Rights of Man,” speaks of “Common Sense” as 
“ that celebrated pamphlet which prepared the minds 
of the people for Independence.” 






/ 


. MERITS OE THOMAS PAINE. 45 

THOMAS GASPSY, 

In his “History of England,” says:— 

“ At this period the celebrated Thomas Paine had 
entered upon his career as a public writer. In Jan¬ 
uary, 1776, his pamphlet, entitled ‘Common Sense,’ 
appeared. That able production has been said to 
have been the joint composition of Paine, Dr. Frank¬ 
lin, Mr. Samuel and John Adams. Paine, however, 
denies that they in any way assisted him; to the 
two latter gentlemen he was not known at the time. 
He had been introduced to Franklin in England. . 

. . . Paine was originally a member of the 

Society of Friends, and brought up as a staymaker 
at Thetford. Subsequently he obtained a situation 
in the excise, but left it to become an assistant in a 
school. He became an exciseman again, and a 
pamphlet which he wrote caused him to be noticed 
by Franklin, who advised him to visit America.— 
* Commbn Sense ’ opened with reflections on the or¬ 
igin and design of government, and it then proceed¬ 
ed with a viogorous hand to expose the abuses which 
had crept into the English system. . . . The 

clear and powerful style of Paine made a prodigious 
impression on the American people. ... He 
was treated with great consideration by the members 
of the Bevolutionary Government, who took no steps 
of importance without consulting him.” 


“ The ‘ Eights of Man ’ had much been read in 
this country. Even ‘ The Age of Eeason ’ had ob¬ 
tained an immense circulation from the great reputa¬ 
tion of the author.—[Atlantic Monthly, Yol. 4, p. 9. 


46 


TESTIMONIALS TO TIIE 


CHARLES BOTTA, 

An Italian patriot, historian, and physician, who 
fought for American Independence, and who must 
have been a good judge of the influence and merits 
of Paine’s writings, says :— 

“ At this epoch appeared a writing entitled 1 Com¬ 
mon Sense.’ It was the production of Mr. Thomas 
Paine, born in England, and arrived not long before 
in America. No writer, perhaps, ever possessed, in 
a higher degree, the art of moving and guiding the 
multitude at his will. It may be affirmed, in effect, 
that this work was one of the most powerful instru¬ 
ments of American Independence. The author en¬ 
deavored, with very plausible arguments, to demon¬ 
strate that the opposition of parties, the diversity of 
interests, the arrogance of thfe British Government, 
and its ardent thirst of vengeance, rendered all re¬ 
conciliation impossible. On the other hand, he en- a 
larged upon the necessity, utility, and possibility of 
Independence. . . . The success of this writ¬ 

ing of Paine cannot be described.” 

WILLIAM GRIMSHAW, 

In his u History of the United States,” after ac¬ 
knowledging the merits of Dickinson, Bland, Frank¬ 
lin, Nicholas, Lee, Jefferson, and others, who sup¬ 
ported the cause of the colonists with their pens, 
says: 

“ But the most powerful writer was the celebrated 
Thomas Paine, of London, who resided for some time 
in America, and, in a work entitled Common Sense , . 
roused the public feeling to a degree unequalled by 
any previous appeal.” 



J 


'MERITS OF THOMAS PAINE. 47 

RAMSAY, 

Who, like Gordon, was contemporary with Paine, 
says, in his “ History of the Revolution,” alluding 
to Common Sense, (see vol. 1, pp. 136—137, Lon¬ 
don, 1793) : — 

“ In union with the feelings and sentiments of the 
people, it produced surprising effects. Many thou¬ 
sands were convinced, and were led to approve and 
long for a separation from the mother country; 
though that measure, a few months before, was not 
only foreign to their wishes, but the object of their 
abhorrence the current suddenly become so strong 
in its favor that it bore down all before it.” 

BAINES, THE HISTORIAN, 

In his “ Wars of the Revolution,” says, speaking 
of the influence of Paine’s political writings in Eng¬ 
land : 

“ As the current of popular opinion did not flow 
in the same direction as the favor of the Court, a 
pamphlet entitled the ‘ Rights of Man,’ in which 
sentiments of an opposite kind were maintained 
with peculiar asperity and animadversion, was read 
and circulated in such a manner as to alarm the ad¬ 
ministration. Editions were multiplied in every 
form and size ; it was alike seen in the hands of the 
noble and the plebeian and became, at length, trans¬ 
lated into the various languages of Europe. The 
cabinet council soon after issued a proclamation 
against ‘ wicked and seditious libels,’ prosecutions 
were commenced with a zeal unknown under the 
government of the reigning family ; and it was re- 


48 


TESTIMONIALS TO THE 


served for the singular fortune of an unlettered man, 
after contributing by one publication to the estab¬ 
lishment of a transatlantic republic in North Amer¬ 
ica, to introduce, with astonishing effect, the doc¬ 
trines of democratic government into the first states 
of Europe.” 

LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD, 

The noble, but unfortunate. Dish patriot, thus 
wrote to his mother, from Paris, in 1792. of the 
abused Thomas Paine, showing clearly that the more 
closely the hibits of that great man were studied, 
the more great and resplendent did they shine forth : 

“ I lodge with my friend Paine ; we breakfast, 
dine, and sup together. The more I see of his in¬ 
terior, the more I like and respect him. I cannot 
express how kind he has been to me; there is a 
simplicity of manner, a goodness of heart, and a 
strength of mind in him that I never knew a man 
BEFORE TO POSSESS.” 

w 

FRANCIS OLDYS, (George Chalmers,) 

In his “ Life of Paine,” says:— 

“ Notwithstanding the reviews of criticism, our 
author received the applause of party. Nay, Phil¬ 
ology came, in the person of Horne Tooke, who found 
out his retreat, after some enquiry, to mingle her 
cordial congratulations with the thanks of greater 
powers. ‘ You are ,’ said he, ‘ like Jove , coming 
down upon us in a shower of gold. 7 ” 


THOMAS PAINE 


THE 

AUTHOR-HERO 

OF 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 


It was in the time when a band of Rebels sat in Car« 
center’s Hall, when the smoke of Lexington and Bun¬ 
ker Hill was yet in the sky, and the undried blood of 
Warren and all the martyrs was yet upon the ground 
—it was in this time, in the blcod-red dawn of our 
Revolution, that a scene of some interest took place 
in the city of William Penn. 

Look yonder, and behold that solitary lamp, flinging 
its dim light through the shadows of a neatly furnished 
room. 

Grouped around the table, the glow of the lamp 
pouring full in their faces, are four persons—a Boston 
feawyer, a Philadelphia Printer, a Philadelphia Doctor, 
and a Virginia Planter. 

Come with me to that lonely room. Let us seat cur- 
selves there. Let us look into the faces of these men 
-that man vrith the bold brow and resolute look, is 
one John Adams, from Boston; next to him sits the 
csalm-faced Benjamin Rush ; there you see the marked 
face of the Printer, one Benjamin Franklin : and last 

all, your eye rests upon a man distinguished above 



2 


THOMAS PAINE : THE AUTHOR-HERO 


all others by his height, the noble outlines of nis form, 
and the solemn dignity of his brow. That man is 
named Washington —one Mr. George Washington, 
from Mount Vernon. 

And these men are all members of the Rebel Con- 
gress. They have met here to talk over the affairs of 
their country. Their conversation is deep-toned—cau¬ 
tious—hurried. Every man seems afraid to give ut¬ 
terance to the thoughts of his bosom. 

Confiscation—the gibbet—the axe ! These have 
been the reward of brave men before now, who dared 
speak treason against his Majesly by the grace of God. 
Therefore, is the conversation of the four patriots bur¬ 
dened with restraint and gloom. 

They talk of Bunker Hill, of Lexington, of tho 
blood-thirsty British Ministry, of the weak and merci¬ 
less British King. 

Then, from the lips of Franklin, comes the great 
question—Where is this war to end % Are we fighting 
only for a change in the British.Ministry 'l Or—or— 
for the Independence of our native land I 

There is silence in that room. 

Washington, Adame, Rush, all look into each other’s 
faces, and are silent. 

' 4 

Bound to England by ties of ancestry— language— 
religion—the very ictea of separation from her seems 
a blasphemy. 

Yes, with their towns burnt, their people murdered 
—Bunker Hill smoking there, Lexington bleeding 
yonder—still, these colonists cling to the name of 
England, still shudder at the big word that chokes 
their utterance to speak— Independence. 


OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 


s 


At this moment, while all is still, a visitor is an * 
nounced. A man somewhat short in stature, clad in a 
coat of fadgd brown. He takes his seat at the table, 
is introduced: to these gentlemen by Franklin, and then 
informed of the topic under discussion. Look upon 
his brow, his flashing eye, as in earnest words he pours 
forth his soul. 

Washington, Adams, Rush, Franklin, all are hushed 
into silence. At first, the man in the brown coat star¬ 
tles, horrifies them with his political blasphemy. 

But as he goes on, as his broad, solid brow warms 
with fire, as his eye flashes the full light of a soul 
rousedk into all its life, as those deep, earnest tones 
speak of the Independence of America — her glorious 
Future—her People, that shall swell into countless 
millions—her Navy, that shall whiten the uttermost 
sea—her Destiny, that shall stride on over the wrecks 
of thrones, to the Universal Empire of the Western 
Continent! 

• Then behold— 

They rise round the table—they press that man in 
the brown coat by the hand—nay, the Virginia Plant¬ 
er Washington, grasps both his hands, and, in a voice 
deepened by emotion, begs him for the sake of God, 
to write these words in a book ! 

A book that shall be read in all the homes, and thun¬ 
dered from all the pulpits in America. 

Do you see the picture, my friends % 

That man in the brown coat, standing there, flush- 
ed A trembling with the excitement of his own thoughts 
—that splendidly-formed Virginia Planter on one side, 
grasping him by the hand, those great-souled men en- 


4 


THOMAS PAINE : THE AUTHOR-HERO 


* circling him on the other, John Adams, Benjamin 
Rush, Benjamin Franklin ! Their gleaming eyes 
shine with one soul, and read on the great cloud of 
the future, this one word—INDEPENDENCE ! 


Let this scene pass : let us follow this man in the 
brown coat through the year 1775. 

The day after this scene, that modest Virginia Plan¬ 
ter, George Washington, was named Commander-in- 
chief of the Continental Army. 

And in the summer days of ’75, that man in the 
brown coat was seen walking up and down in front of 
the old State House, his great forehead shon#in full 
sunlight, while, with his hand placed behind his back, 
he went slowly along the pavement. Then he would 
hurry to his lonely garret, seize the quill and write 
down the deep thoughts of his brain. 

Then forth again for a walk in the State House 
Square—up and down under these old trees, he wan¬ 
ders all the afternoon—at night, there is a light burn¬ 
ing all night, till break of day. 

Let us look in that garret window—what see you 
there % 

A rude and neglected room—a man short in stature 
sitting beside an old table, with scattered sheets of 
paper all about him—the light of the unsnuffed candle 
upon his brow—that unfailing quill in his hand ! 

Ah! my friends, you may talk to me of the sublim 
ity of your battles, whose poetry is bones and skulls, 
whose glories are like the trophies of the butcher’s 
shambles—but for me, there is no battle so awfully 



/ 


OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 5 

sublime as one like this, now being fought before your 
eye#. 

A poor neglected author sittirl^ in his garret—the 
,, world, poverty, time, space, all forgotten—as with his 
soul kindled into one steady blaze, he plies that fast- 
moving quill. That quill writes down words on pa¬ 
per, which shall burn into the brains of kings, — 
words like arrows, winged with fire and pointed with 
vkriol. 

Go on, brave author, sitting in your garret, alone at 
this dead hour—go on—on through the silent watches 
of the night, and God’s blessings fail like breezes of 
June upon your damp brow. Go on, in the name of 
God and man, for you are writing the thoughts of a 
nation into birth. 

For many days, in the year 1775, was that man in 
the brown coat seen walking up and down the Staje 
House Square. The proud Tory passed by him with 
scorn. Yet he was thinking great thoughts, which 
would eat away the throne of that Tory’s king ! The 
Tory, the vulgar rich man, the small dog in office, 
passed him by with scorn, but men of genius took him 
by the arm, and called him brother. Look yonder ! 
There in a lonely garret, night after night, burns that 
solitary lamp, burns, and burns on, till break of day. 

At last, the work is done. At last, grappling the 
loose sheets in his trembling hands—trembling be¬ 
cause feverish from the toil of the brain—he rushes 
forth one morning. His book is written ; it now must 
be printed—scattered to the homes of America. But, 
not one printer will touch the book, not a publisher 
but grows pale zftthe sight of those dingy pages.— 


6 


THOMAS PAINE : THE AUTHOR-HERO 


Because it ridicules the British Monarchy , because 
it speaks out, in plain words, that nothing now remains 
to be done but to de«lare the New World free and in¬ 
dependent. 

This shocks the trembling printers—touch such a 
mess of treasonable stuff'l—never ! But at last, a 
printer is found, a bold Scotchman, named Robert 
Bell! Write that name on your hearts, for it is wor-. 
thy all reverence ! He transformed those loose pages 
into types, and on the 1st of January, 1776, Common 
Sense burst on the people of the New World like a 
prophecy ! 

Yes, that book bursts on the hearts and homes of 
America, like light from Heaven. 

It is read by the Mechanic at his bench; the Mer¬ 
chant at his desk; the Preacher in his pulpit reads it 
J,o his people, and scatters its great truths with the 
teachings of Revelation. 

“ It burst from the pre’&s,” says the great Dr. Rush, 
11 with an effect which has been rarely produced by 
types or paper, in any age or country ! 

Ramsay, in his History of the Revolution, and his 
brother historian, Gordon, solemnly state the fact that 
this book was a most important cause of the separation 
from the Mother country. 

Thomas Jefferson, Joel Barlow, George Washington 
unite in their praises of this work. Long after its pub¬ 
lication, Jefferson sent a Government ship to bring the 
author home from France; Washington invited him to 
the shelter of his own home ; Barlow described him, 
yes, the man in the brown coat, as li one of the most 
benevolent and disinterested of n^jinkind; endowed 


OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 


7 


with the clearest perception, an uncommon share of 
original genius, and the greatest breadth of thought.” 

In August, 1785, after the battle was fought and the 
empire established, Congress in a solemn resolution, 
stamped the author of Common Sense with their ap¬ 
probation, as one of the greatest of the great men of 
the Revolution. 

This book was the cause and forerunner of the De¬ 
claration of Independence. 

In this book, for the first time, were written these 
great words :— u The Free and Independent States of 
America ! ” 

Let us follow this man in the brown coat through 
the scenes of the Revolution. 

In the full prime of early manhood, he joins the 
army of the Revolution ; he shares the crust and the 
cold with Washington and his men—he is with those 
brave soldiers on the toilsome march, with them bj 
the camp-fire, with them in the hour of battle ! 

Why is he with them % 

Is the day dark—has the battle been bloody—do the 
American soldiers despair 1 ? Hark ! that printing-press 
yonder, which moves with the American camp in all 
its wanderings, is scattering pamphlets through tile 
ranks of the army. 

Pamphlets written by the Author-Soldier: written 
sometimes on the head of a drum—or by the midnight 
fire, or amid the corses of the dead. Pamphlets that 
stamp great hopes and greater truths, in plain words, 
upon the hearts of the Continental Army. 

Tell me, was not that a sublime sight, to see a man 
of genius, who might have shone as an oratoi, a poet, a 


3 


THOMAS PAINE : THE AUTHOR-HERO 


novelist, following, with untiring devotion, the bloody 
stamped footsteps of the Continental Army 1 

Yes, in the dark days of ’76, when the soldiers ol 
Washington tracked their footsteps on the soil of Tren¬ 
ton, in the snows of Princeton, there, first among the 
heroes and patriots, there, unflinching in the hour of 
defeat, writing the u Crisis ” by the light of the camp¬ 
fire, was the Author-Hero of the Revolution. 

Yes, we will look into the half-clad ranks of Wash¬ 
ington’s Army, we will behold each corporal surround¬ 
ed by a group of soldiers, as he reads aloud the pamph¬ 
lets of the Author-Soldier. What hope, what joy, what 
energy gleams over the veteran faces, as words like 
these break on the frosty air!— 

11 These are the times that try men’s souls. The 
summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this 
crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he 
that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of 
men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily 
conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that 
the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.’- 
Do not words like these stir up the blood? 

^Yet can you imagine their effect when read to the 
groups of starved and bleeding soldiers, by the rec 
watch-fire, in the cold air of the winter-dawn? 

Such words as these stirred up the starved Continen 
tals to the attack on Trenton, and there, in the dawn 
of that glorious morning, George Washington, stand 
ing sword in hand over the dead body of the Hessiar. 
Rhol, confessed the magic influence of the Author 
Hero’s pen. 

The vilest enemy of this Author-Hero, a base hire 


V 


OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. © 

ling of the English Court, yes, even he, the libeller 
of Jefferson and Franklin and Madison, as he was, 
even he, a thing so small in soul that his very mas¬ 
ters were ashamed of him, was forced to confess that: 
—“ The cannon of Washington was not more formidable 
to the British , than the pen of the authof* of Common 
Sensed 1 

Is there a heart that does not throb at the name of 
the author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, the 
Statesman-Hero of the Revolution ? 

And do your hearts throb at the mention of his name, 
and yet refuse to pay even the tribute of one solitary 
pulsation of justice to the memory of his brother-patri¬ 
ot, his forerunner in the work of Freedom, the Author- 
Hero of the Revolution—THOMAS PAINE 1 




PAINE’S POLITICAL CREED. 

Extract from the “ Crisis.” 

u Society^in every state is a blessing, but govern¬ 
ment, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; 
in its worst state an intolerable one ; for when we 
suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a govern¬ 
ment ., which we might expect in a country without 
government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting 
that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Se¬ 
curity being the true design and ,end of government, 
it unanswerably follows, that whatever form thereof 
appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least 
expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all 
others.” 4 

11 This is my creed of politics. If I have any where 
expressed myself over-warmly, ’t is from a fixed, im¬ 
moveable hatred I have, and ever had, to cruel men 

and cruel measures. 

u If there is a sin superior to every other, it is that 
cf wilful and offensive war. Most other sins are cir¬ 
cumscribed within narrow limits, that is, the power oi 
one man cannot give them a very general extension 
and many kinds of sin fyave only a mental existence 
from which no infection arises; but he who is the 
author of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of hell 
and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.” 


From the Boston Post of January 29, 1856. 

THE BIRTH-DAY OF A PATRIOT. 

THOMAS PAINE. 


This day is memorable as the one hundred and nine* 
teenth anniversary of the bir+h-day of one of our revolu¬ 
tionary heroes, Thomas Paine-, who was born in the 
town of Thetford, England. 

Mr. Paine could boast of no illuftaious pedigree, 
as his parents were humble in their occupation and 
mode of life. His father was a Quaker, and by trade 
a staymaker. His mother was of the established 
church. Early in life their son was educated in the 
common branches of English study, and in a smatter 
ing of the Latin language; but, at the age of thirteen 
he was taken from school, and made an assistant to his 
father in his trade. Three years passed, and he start¬ 
ed for London, where he remained a few weeks.— 
Thence he went to Dover, and shipped on board a pri¬ 
vateer named the Terrible, and commanded by Capt. 
Death. His connection with this vessel did not last 
long, for we soon after find him on board another pn- 
vateers-man, which appears to have made him avers i 
to the naval profession, and to abandon it altogether. * 
In 1759 Mr. Paine settled at Sandwich, where he mar 
-ied Mary Lambert, the daughter of an exciseman, m a 


fci THE BIRTH-DAY OF A PATRIOT. 

few months. She die j the next year. Leaving stay, 
making, and changing his residence once or twice, till 
he reached Thetford again, he accepted the appoint¬ 
ment to a place in the excise. Having been dismissed 
from his office, he repaired to London, and became 
teacher in an academy for about ten months, when he 
was reinstated as an exciseman. In 1768 he removed 
to Lewes, where • he opened a grocer’s shop, and was 
married to Miss Elizabeth Olive in 1771. In this town 
he became quite prominent as a debater, as a socia, 
companion, and as a man of independence. 

In 1774 he failed in business, was again removed 
from his office, and separated from his wife by mutual 
consent. To London he went once more, and there he 
became acquainted with Dr. Franklin, who advised 
him to go to America, whither he went near the close 
of the year, and arrived at Philadelphia with a letter 
of introduction from the doctor to an intimate friend.— 
Up to this date, at the age of 37 he had been 11 a me¬ 
chanic, a sailor a tradesman, an exciseman, a store¬ 
keeper, a teacher, a pamphleteer, and a politician.”— 
His companions were Rittenhouse, Geo. Clymer, Dr. 
Rush and Franklin. 

In 1775 Mr. Paine became editor of the Pennsylva¬ 
nia Magazine, and contributed a number of elegant 
pieces, both in poetry and prose. It was by means of 
this position that he became known to Dr. Rush. His 
two masterly periodicals, u Common Sense,” and 11 The 
Crisis,” which were interspersed between the years 
^77-6 and 1783, during the war, were written with such 
perspicuity and energy, they were issued at such op¬ 
portune intervals, and administered in such an unequal¬ 
led manner, that the American people were thereby in- 


THOMAS PAINE. 


Ill 

• 

cited to strive not only for relief and redress, but for 
national independence. His glowing ideas and elo¬ 
quent appeals welded the popular thoughts into an in¬ 
domitable resolution, transformed that mental resolve 
into a successful curr.ent of living action. Nor did the 
Declaration of Independence put an end to his labors 
in the cause of liberty. He continued his pamphlets 
free to a newly free people, receiving no compensation 
therefor. In 1776 he was a volunteer under General 
Washington, and in April, 1777, was elected by Con- • 
■ gress Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, 
which station he resigned in about two years. He was 
soon after chosen Clerk of the Pennsylvania Legislature. 

In 1781 he accompanied Col. Laurens to France for the 
purpose of negotiating a loan. The embassy obtained 
six million livres as a present and ten millions as a loan. 
France had previously declared in our favor. A very 
short time before this, when our financial condition was 
near its low water mark, and Washington feared a dis- 
t solution of our army through want of pay, Mr. Paine 
: originated a private subscription and headed it with 
; $500, all the money he could raise, including his sala* 
i ry. This project procured three hundred thousand 
i pounds, which bridged us on to the capture of Corn- 
\ wallis. Congress granted to him a sum of $3000 in 
1785. Pennsylvania gave him five hundred pounds 
currency, and New York conveyed to him over 300 
acres of rich land, well cultivated, and a large stone 
house with extensive outbuildings, situated in New 
Rochelle. 

In April, 1787, Mr. Paine sailed for France. He had 
been made a member of the American Philosophical 
Society and appointed Master of Arts by the Univerai 



J? THE BIRTH-DAY OF A PATRIOT. 

ly of Philadelphia. These positions leadily allowed 
him to introduce to the notice of the Academy of Sci¬ 
ences in Paris, the model of an iron bridge which gave 
him much credit. He next went to London and onward 
to Thetford, to visit his aged mother, where he wrote a 
pamphlet on the state of the nation, entitled “ Pros’ 
pects on the Rubicon.” He passed the year 17S8 in 
erecting his iron bridge. 

Early in the year 1791 Mr. Paine issued his first num¬ 
ber of u Rights of Man,” in reply to Burke. In May 
he repaired to France where he came near losing his 
life by having no cockade in his hat, at a given signal 
for all the friends of liberty to cover their heads in si¬ 
lence. He returned to London in July, where he wrote 
an address and declaratidh on the French Revolution, in 
which h'e acted his part and felt a great interest. In 
1792, appeared the second number of Rights of Man. 
He sought no concealment for his name as author of 
these startling productions, though a public prosecu¬ 
tion hung over them as seditious libels. In Septem¬ 
ber he learned of his election as a Representative to 
the National Convention in France. In spite of the 
English attempt to retain him, he embarked for Calais, 
where he was cordially received by the National Guard, 
and a national cockade was given to him. A salute 
w T as fired from the battery in honor of his arrival. The 
cry of u vive Thomas Paine,” came from the crowd as 
he passed to the town hall to be presented to the May 
or and others. A play was performed in the theatre, 
a.nd a box reserved for him. Several other places elect¬ 
ed him as their deputy, but he accepted that of Calais, 
n.s first tendered. He went to Paris, took his seat in 
the national assembly, and was appointed on file com 


THOMAS PAIWfl. 


* 

mittee to frame a new constitution. He inteiposed in 
behalf of an Englishman who struck him a violent 
blow for an expression of opinion, and his interposi¬ 
tion saved his opponent’s life. He also gave him mo¬ 
ney to pay his expenses to England. His ideas were 
humane in all cases, even where he labored to save 
the life of Louis XVI., much to his own inconvenience 
and peril. Of the parties into which the Convention 
was divided he adhered to that opposed to Robespierre 
and his compeers. This Violent faction had him arrest¬ 
ed and imprisoned for eleven months. Observing how 
things were tending to anarchy, and that all forms of 
religion were on the eve of a wreck, he had prepared 
the first part of his Age of Reason, to endeavor to stay 
the national rush into ruin; and on his way to the Lux- * 
embourgh, deposited it in the hands of his friend, Joel 
Barlow. He had providentially completed this part 
only six hours before his arrest. 

During his imprisonment he wrote the most of the 
second part of his Age of Reason. While in prison he 
experienced another providential occurrence in the 
shape of a violent fever, which benumbed his senses 
for a month. Among those who were selected for the 
guillotine, and whose doors were chalked with a mark 
he was numbered ; but, his door being open at the time, 
ieceived the mark on the wrong side for his persecu¬ 
tors ; for, when they came around for their victims, the 
cell-doors being shut, his mark was inside, and out o. 
sight. Thus he escaped. Soon'after his recovery he 
heard of Robespierre’s fall. This escape was quite as 
providential as was that of Bonaparte when surrounded 
by the rapidly incoming rollers of the Red Sea, during 
his attempt to reconnoitre that region. On his release 


v 


VI THE BIRTH-DAY OF A PATRIOT. 

from prison, he was an invited guest at the house oi 
Mr. James Monroe, (the then American Minister to 
France.) for eighteen months. The national con¬ 
vention unanimously voted for him to resume his seal 
in that body. Wherever his lot fell, he was active, 
candid, and effective. He was ever fearless in the ex¬ 
pression of his opinions, and in defining his position.— 
In 1797 he joined the society of Theophilanthropists, 
whose object was to promote morality, religious tolera¬ 
tion, and a belief in one God. His undisguised man 
ner of promulgating his theological sentiments lost him 
many friends; but his bitterest foes have contributed 
much to his celebrity and to the immortality of his 
fame. 

After several attempts to obtain a safe passage across 
the Atlantic, for English cruisers were numerous and 
zealous in pursuit of him, he finally succeeded and 
reached Baltimore in October, 1802, when the political 
newspapers along the entire seaboard teemed with ap. 
plause or abuse. His property was then worth £6000 
sterling. He soon visited Washington, and was cor¬ 
dially received by the President, Thomas Jefferson.— 
He also visited the heads of the departments and the 
various political leaders during his stay. It was not 
long before he went to New York, between which city 
and New Rochelle he passed the small residue of his 
life. 

Mr. Paine wrote and published many other articles 
than those cited; and all of them obtained a great de¬ 
gree of notoriety. While residing in Broome street, 
New York city, he published his examination of cer¬ 
tain Scriptural prophecies. This was in 1807. In May, 
1809, he removed into a small housp in Columbia 


9 


\ 


THOMAS PAINE. vil 

street; and on the eighth of June he died, in full pos¬ 
session of his mental faculties, with tranquillity and 
almost without a struggle, at the advanced age of 72. 
His remains were deposited near New Rochelle. A 
beautiful monument marks the spot. His was a life 
of much usefulness and activity. Calumny has blis¬ 
tered her relentless hand in trying to stamp him as 
profane, intemperate and mendacious. The real truth 
appears to be that he was never habituated to profan¬ 
ity, to drunkenness, nor to falsehood ; and that his ca¬ 
lumniators are unconsciously his eulogists. His motto 
vras — 

u The World is my Country ; to do Good 

my Religion.” 





PAINE’S ODE TO AMERICA. 


* Air—“ Rule Britannia 

Hail! great Republic of the world, 

The rising empire of the west: 

Where famed Columbus, with mighty mind inspir’d, 
Gave tortured Europe scenes of rest. 

Be thou for ever, for ever great and free, 

The Land of Love and Liberty. „ 

Beneath thy spreading mantling vine, 

Beside thy flowery groves and springs, 

And on thy lofty, thy lofty mountains’ brow, 

May all thy sons and fair ones sing, 

Be thou for ever, &c. 

May ageft, as they rise, proclaim 
The glories of thy natal day, 

And restless Europe from thy example learn 
To live, to rule, and to obey. 

Be thou for ever, &c. 

From thee may hated discord fly, 

With all her dark and dreary train, 

And whilst thy mighty, thy mighty waters roll, 

May heart-endearing concord reign. 

Be thou for ever, &c. 

Let laureates sing their birth-day odes, 

Or how their death-like thunders hurl’d: 

’Tis ours the charter, the charter ours alone, 

To sing the birth-day of the world 

Be thou for ever, &c. 


ODE TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS PAINE. 

Air :—“ Star Spangled Banner .” 

When tyranny, drenched in the blood of mankind, 

The earth with destruction’s foul besom was sweep¬ 

ing, 

And daring to ]}ind her dark chains on the mind 
Where Nature, and Reason, and Freedom were 
weeping, 

Oh ! what on thatpight of the tyrant’s dread might, 
To cheer the lone victims, shed forth a pure light! 
’T was th<*glory Paine shed around Liberty’s Tree, 
Directing the way to be happy and free. 

The light of that glory on Freedom first flashed, % 
And show’d her the chains and the despots that 
bound her; 

She rose, and to pieces her fetters she dashed, 

And swore that these trammels no more should 
clank round her. [dam, 

And what, when her chain she had broke with dis- 
Taught Freedom her rights, and those rights to 
maintain!— 

’T was the glory, &c. 

Now Reason from lethargy starting awake, 

As o'er her the day of that g’lory was dawning, 

Beheld the vile halter, the rack, and the stake, 

Displayed in the dungeons that round her were 
yawning; 

The cloak then she drew from the den and its crew, 
And let in the light that exposed them to view— 
’T was the glory, &c. 

Fair Nature long wrapped in delusion’s dark gloom, 
Now comes on that light, in her own native beauty, 

Triumphant to tread upon Bigotry’s tomb, 

And from her own volume teach mankind their duty : 
For tyranny’s might, and the bigot’s foul night, 
Must perish for aye in the blaze of that light — 


THE FREEMAN’S SHOUT. 


Our hearts for justice warmly burn, 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 

Each taunting curse we proudly spurn, 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! * 

For Truth we brave our foes again, 

For Right, for Freedom, and for Paine ! 
Hurrah! hurrah! huiwah ! hurrah! 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 

Again we raise our cheerful song, 

Huriah! hurrah! hurrah! 

For him who dared the bigot throng, 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 

His fame and memory we ’ll defend, 

The patriot’s and the poor man’s friend ! 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 

Not for renown, nor yet for gold, 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah ! 

Did he assail Earth’s idols old, 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah ! 

But wealth and fame, in age and youth, 
He gave to Freedom and to Truth! 

Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah ! 

We fear no foe, we flee no fight, 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah ! 

While thus we honor slandered Right, 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 

Then higher raise our song again, 

For Freedom, Truth, and Thomas Paine ! 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 


JUSTICE TO PAINE. 

Air :—“ Thou reign ’ st ” fyc . 

Soft, soft, music is stealing, 

Sweet, sweet, lingers the strain, 
Loud, loud, now it is pealing, 
Ringing for justice to Paine. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes, 

Ringing for justice to Paine. 

Join, join, in this hour of gladness, 
Send, send, sorrow away, 

Now, now, adieu to all sadness, 
Warble a joyful lay. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes, 

Warble a joyful lay. 

Hope, hope, fair and enduring, 

Joy, joy, bright as this day, 

Paine, Paine, by his labor ensuring, 
Bids us send sorrow away. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes, 

We will send sorrow away. 



ODE TO PAINE’S BIRTH-DAY. 

Tune :— America . 

BY E. N. ADAMSON. 

All hail ! illustrious Paine ! 
Welcome this day again 
Which gave him birth! 

To all around proclaim 
The glories of his name ! 

Spread wide his matchless fame 
Through all the earth ! 

When proud oppression’s arm 
Fill’d freedom with alarm, 

Lest hope should flee, 

He wrote, in u words that burn,’ 
Bade fears to vengeance turn — 
u Back the invader spurn,” 

**And we were free ! 

When superstition Tag’d, 

And mind no warfare wag’d 
’Gainst her decree, 

He boldly searched her page, 
Spread wide his glorious u Age;’ 
Men read, and blessed the sage 
Who set them free ! 

Not to our land confined, 

The products of his mind 
Shall fill the earth ! 

When love of reason reigns— 
When freedom thrills our veins— 
We’ll sing in loudest strains 
His matchless worth ! 



















. 

* r 





T E S T I M 0 N I A L S 

A 

TO THE MERITS OF 


THOMAS PAINE, 


AUTHOR OF “COMMON SENSE,” THE CRISIS,” “THE 
RIGHTS OF MAN,” “ENGLISH SYSTEM OF FI¬ 
NANCE,” “ AGE OF REASON,” ETC., ETC. 

• COMPILED BY 

I ~ 

JOSEPH INI. MOREAU. 


u The world is my country, 

To do good my religion.’ 7 — Paine’s Motto. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY J. P. MENDUM, 
Office of the Boston Investigator. 

1874. 























THE INVESTIGATOR. 

The Oldest of the Reform Journals. 

The (t INVESTIGATOR ” is devoted to Universal 
Mental Liberty. Independent in all its discussions, dis¬ 
carding superstitious theories of what never can be known, 
it devotes its columns to things of this world alone, and 
leaves the next, if there be one, to those who have entered 
its unknown shores. Believing it is the duty of mortals 
to work for the interests of this world, it confines itself to 
things of this life entirely. 

PRICE $3,50 PER YEAR. 


THOMAS PAINE’S WRITINGS, 

For sale at the Office of the Boston Investigator, 

84 Washington Street, Boston, Mass. !• 

Sent free of 'postage on receipt of price. 

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF THOMAS PAINE, N 
Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs in 
the American Revolution. Three volumes, consist¬ 
ing of his POLITICAL, THEOLOGICAL, and 
MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. . To which is ! 
added a Sketch of his Life. Price $7,94 j 

THE POLITICAL WRITINGS OF THOMAS ' 
PAINE, with a Brief Sketch of the Author’s Life. 

A new edition with additions. 2 vols. Price $5,62 
THEOLOGICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS WRI¬ 
TINGS OF THOMAS PAINE. The most com¬ 
plete edition ever published—containing his AGE 
OF REASON, and all his writings on Theology, 
with many Miscellaneous and Political Pieces, and 
his Letters to Washington. Price $2,90 

COMMON SENSE, a Revolutionary Pamphlet, ad¬ 
dressed to-the inhabitants of America, 1776. by 
Thomas Paine Price, paper, * 20 

RIGHTS OF MAN; being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s 
Attack on the French Revolution, by Thomas 
Paine. Price. 50 


































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